Funding climate action
Carbon offsetting — and what we do instead
“Offsetting” promises a neat cancel-out: emit a tonne here, erase a tonne there. The science and the market never fully delivered on that promise. Here is the honest version — and what funding climate action looks like instead.
Where “carbon offsetting” came from
The idea is older than the climate movement’s mainstream moment. When the Kyoto Protocol created the Clean Development Mechanism in 1997, it let countries and companies pay for emission reductions elsewhere — usually in developing economies — and count them toward their own targets. A voluntary market soon grew alongside it, selling the same promise to businesses and individuals: keep emitting, but buy a credit so the net effect is zero.
On paper it is elegant. A tonne of CO₂ does the same damage wherever it is released, so a tonne avoided or removed somewhere cheaper should balance the books. For two decades that logic powered a multi-billion-dollar market in forestry, renewable-energy and cookstove credits.
Why the language is changing
Investigations into the voluntary market kept finding the same cracks. Additionality: would the project have happened anyway, credit or not? Permanence: a forest paid to stand can still burn or be logged a decade later. Measurement: many credits turned out to represent far less avoided carbon than they claimed. The result was a wave of greenwashing headlines and a collapse in trust.
So the serious end of the field changed how it talks. Leading standards and buyers increasingly avoid “offsetting” — with its implied perfect cancel-out — in favour of climate contributions, climate finance and, where it is measurable and durable, carbon removal. The shift is not just wording. It moves the goal from “erase my emissions on paper” to “put money behind real, verifiable climate work, on top of cutting your own emissions first.”
That distinction is what we build on. We do not sell a clean conscience; we help you fund high-integrity climate action and back projects we can stand behind.
What we fund instead
Concrete, verifiable climate work — not paper promises.
Gold Standard projects
Vetted climate projects certified to one of the market’s most rigorous standards.
Biochar carbon removal
Durable carbon storage that locks carbon away for centuries, not seasons.
Sustainable aviation fuel
Cutting the emissions of flights that cannot yet be electrified.
Our funding approach
How we choose projects, measure impact, and keep it honest.
Go deeper
Carbon Sequestration Explained: How CO₂ Gets Stored
Carbon sequestration means capturing carbon dioxide and storing it — in trees, soils, rocks, or deep underground — so it stays out of the atmosphere. It is the backbone of every credible net-zero plan, but not all sequestration is equally durable. Here is how it works, and what separates a real removal from a hopeful one.
Forests as Carbon Sinks: How Forest Offset Projects Work
Forests are the planet’s largest land carbon sink, which is why so many offset projects are built around them. But a forest credit is only as good as its permanence and additionality. Here is how forest carbon projects work — and where they fall short.
Gold Standard Carbon Credits: A Buyer’s Quality Guide
If you are buying carbon credits, the certification standard is your first quality signal. This guide explains what Gold Standard certification means, how it compares to other standards, and the questions to ask before you buy.
How Carbon Offsetting Works, Step by Step
Carbon offsetting sounds simple — pay to cancel out your emissions — but a lot happens between a project and a retired credit. Here is the full lifecycle, the avoidance-versus-removal distinction, and why we prefer to talk about funding climate action.
Carbon Credits vs Carbon Offsets: What’s the Difference?
“Carbon credit” and “carbon offset” get used interchangeably, but they are not quite the same thing — and the difference matters once compliance markets enter the picture. Here is a plain-English breakdown.
Skip the paperwork. Fund real climate action.
Cutting your own emissions comes first. For what is left, put money behind verified projects instead of buying a label.