carbon credit

[ kahr-buhn kred-it ]

noun

1. a unit of one metric ton of carbon dioxide (or an equivalent mass of other atmospheric pollutants), as enumerated in the tradable permits that regulate atmospheric pollution in a cap-and-trade system:

   Companies can accumulate carbon credits by funding new forest growth.

carbon credit

noun

1. a certificate showing that a government or company has paid to have a certain amount of carbon dioxide removed from the environment

Word History and Origins

Origin of carbon credit¹

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

Those conversions earn carbon credit subsidies in the state’s carbon markets.

From Los Angeles Times

But, she added, buyers in the carbon credit market can’t definitively claim that they’ve offset their carbon emissions.

From Salon

In Vaulted’s case, Frontier, along with Rubicon Carbon, count among the company’s first carbon credit customers, rather than seed funders.

From Salon

Department of Energy has stated a goal of seeing carbon credit prices below $100 per metric ton.

From Salon

The interest in clean cooking as a climate solution has also given rise to a growing carbon credit market in which polluters such as airlines buy "cookstove credits" that pay for some portion of the transition from older to newer forms of household cooking — though a study Kammen co-authored this year showed that such credits often dramatically overestimate the emissions reductions that the new stoves achieve.

From Salon