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

For example a logistics company might be lowering its emission by converting its fleet of trucks to electric, or a tech company might be purchasing a certain type of carbon credit.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

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

Read more on Los Angeles Times

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

Read more on Salon

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

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

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