carbon offset

British

noun

1. a compensatory measure made by an individual or company for carbon emissions, usually through sponsoring activities or projects which increase carbon dioxide absorption, such as tree planting
2. ( as modifier )
  
  a carbon-offset scheme

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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carbon offset

"On average, each club saves around £3,000 and offsets 3.3 tonnes of carbon, totalling an estimated annual carbon offset of over 840 tonnes, with an estimated energy saving of around £840,000 for all clubs combined".

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026

Most estimates suggest that afforestation is the “cheapest” means of offsetting carbon emissions — the international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates it will cost more than $14 per ton of carbon offset.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2025

But carbon offset projects have a poor record, and examples of their failures abound.

From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2024

A carbon offset is a credit that you can buy to make up for your emissions.

From New York Times ● May 6, 2024

Yin analyzed an intensively-managed pine plantation in the South of the United States and found that the amount of carbon offset credits a landowner can take was exaggerated by a factor of at least 2.76.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 26, 2024

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023