carbon neutral

American  

adjective

1. pertaining to or having achieved a state in which the net amount of carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds emitted into the atmosphere is reduced to zero because it is balanced by actions to reduce or offset these emissions.

   Since the administration installed solar panels, the campus has become carbon neutral;

   a carbon-neutral brewery.

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Other Word Forms

• carbon neutrality
  noun

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Etymology

Origin of carbon neutral

First recorded in 1990–95

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

carbon neutral

Yet in recent years, Massachusetts has implemented policies to become carbon neutral by 2050.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026

The city is also working toward a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

Big Green Coach is the festival's official travel partner, a "carbon neutral coach" which arrives at the festival on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, and returns on Monday.

From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2025

It also pointed to its plans to phase out its coal-fired power plants and become carbon neutral by 2040.

From BBC ● May 28, 2025

But by 2024 it had stopped claiming its operations were carbon neutral, and this year it acknowledged its emissions were still rising.

From Barron's

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