decarbonize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide or other carbon compounds emitted into the atmosphere by the activities of (a household, industry, country, etc.).
Our expertise is in designing new ways to decarbonize our economy, using solar energy and renewable carbon to replace fossil fuels.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
decarbonizesimple
-
decarbonizessimple
-
have decarbonizedperfect
-
has decarbonizedperfect
-
am decarbonizingprogressive
-
are decarbonizingprogressive
-
is decarbonizingprogressive
-
have been decarbonizingperfect progressive
-
has been decarbonizingperfect progressive
Past
-
decarbonizedsimple
-
had decarbonizedperfect
-
was decarbonizingprogressive
-
were decarbonizingprogressive
-
had been decarbonizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of decarbonize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Clean hydrogen, a fuel that was expected to become a big part of America’s push to decarbonize, appears to be dead for now.
From Barron's ● Dec. 10, 2025
As part of its energy surge, China has pushed rapid investment into the only technology that currently can decarbonize the planet at scale: nuclear fission and fusion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2025
“But there’s a good chance that by then, demand for gas in South Korea will have fallen alongside the broader push to decarbonize, which will lead to oversupply and depressed prices,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2025
Vehicles fueled by diesel lead to substantial carbon emissions that are challenging to decarbonize.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
The lungs will not decarbonize and purify the blood with foul air, that has been breathed over and over and lost its oxygen.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 10, No. 60, October, 1862 by Various
Nordhaus said if the rate at which the economy has decarbonized since 1970 continues, the world will hit net zero by 2080.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 13, 2025
For the sake of a decarbonized society, I totally agree that we need more electronic vehicles and we need to produce them more, and that gasoline should be abandoned as fast as possible.
From Salon ● May 3, 2024
Plastics, ubiquitous in the modern world, cannot be decarbonized because they are made of carbon-based molecules.
From Science Daily ● May 1, 2024
The rapid development of more diverse sources of protein would also support the world’s transition to decarbonized food systems.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 12, 2023
High-speed steel should be delivered from the rolling mill to the annealing department free from scale, for scale promotes the formation of a decarbonized surface.
From The Working of Steel Annealing, Heat Treating and Hardening of Carbon and Alloy Steel by Colvin, Fred H. (Fred Herbert)
Voltify, a Philadelphia-based startup, raised $30 million in seed funding to trial its system for decarbonizing the rail industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
GE Vernova is also investing an “immense amount” of capital into decarbonizing gas by capturing carbon emitted from gas production and injecting it back into cavities in the ground, Strazik said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
The differences between the agriculture and the energy sector really illustrate the challenges of decarbonizing food systems.
From Salon ● Sep. 17, 2024
“We’re going to be decarbonizing the most polluting of all sectors — transportation, heavy industry, airplanes, shipping,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2024
Two men claimed that they had anticipated Bessemer in the invention of a method of treating molten metal with air-blasts for the purpose of "purifying" or decarbonizing iron.
From The Beginnings of Cheap Steel by Bishop, Philip W.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
