What is carbon offsetting?

When you fly, drive, heat and cool your home, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is added into the atmosphere. CO₂ is a greenhouse gas that is released when fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are burnt, adding to climate change.  

We can all take simple steps to reduce the amount of CO₂ we produce. We can also offset the rest. 

Offsetting means paying someone to reduce CO₂ in the atmosphere on your behalf.  In that way we can pay for the damage we are causing and the money stimulates the technologies we desperately need to fund transition to a lower-carbon world.

Projects creating emission savings (offsets) range from tree planting to wind farms to solar power plants.

Trees extract CO₂ from the atmosphere as they grow. Wind farms produce energy without producing greenhouse gases. Every kilowatt of power produced by a wind farms means one less kilowatt needed from a source that does produce greenhouse gases (like coal).

There are also projects like methane collection and combustion, avoided deforestation and solar power generation - all of which either remove CO₂ from the atmosphere or prevent the release of CO₂.