Written By: Climate change is already threatening nature, people, and your favorite vacation spots. But travel is also part of the problem. Flights and other travel activities generate emissions, and while reducing them is a priority, eliminating them entirely isn’t yet possible for most trips. Decarbonizing travel will take time.
That’s where carbon offsets come in. Carbon offsets fund projects around the world that reduce or remove emissions. They allow you to do more for the climate now, beyond the changes you can make in how you travel.
Keep reading to learn what carbon offsets and carbon credits are, how they work, and what types of projects they support.
Key Takeaways
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What Are Carbon Offsets?
Carbon offsets are a way for individuals and businesses to fund projects that reduce or remove emissions around the world. Many of these projects, like protecting large areas of rainforest or building wind farms, are too complex and costly for any one person or company to take on. When many people contribute, their money adds up to make that work possible.
Carbon offsets aren’t a replacement for cutting your own emissions. The two approaches work together: reduce what you can, while using carbon offsets to support climate action beyond your own trips.
Carbon Offsets vs. Carbon Credits: What’s the Difference?
The terms “carbon offsets” and “carbon credits” are often used interchangeably, but there is a slight distinction between them. A carbon offset is the contribution you make to support climate projects. A carbon credit is what you buy to make that contribution.
What Are Carbon Credits?
When you purchase carbon offsets, what you’re actually buying are carbon credits. Each credit represents 1 metric ton of carbon dioxide (or an equivalent amount of other greenhouse gases) avoided or removed by a climate project. Credits can be bought and sold, and purchasing them helps fund and sustain those projects.
Once a credit is purchased, it’s retired. This permanently removes it from the market so it can’t be sold again or used by anyone else. Reputable providers handle this step for you.
Many travelers use their carbon footprint to decide how many credits to buy, so the climate action they support matches the scale of their travel emissions. For example, if your flight produces about 2 metric tons of carbon dioxide, you could buy and retire 2 carbon credits.
How Do Carbon Offsets Work?
While they may initially sound complex, carbon offsets are a straightforward concept. Here’s how the process works:
1. Buy Carbon Credits that Fund Climate Projects Around the World
Start by deciding how much you want to contribute and which climate projects you want to support.
Many people connect their offset contribution to their own carbon footprint, while others base it on how much they’re able to give. You can choose the approach that works for you.
If you want to use your footprint as a guide, you can estimate your emissions with a carbon calculator. Here are a few tools to get you started:
- Our travel carbon footprint calculator measures emissions from flights, hotels, car rentals, road trips, cruises, yachting, private jets, and dive liveaboards.
- Humí, our tour carbon measurement tool, calculates the footprint of multi-day tours directly from an itinerary.
- Our hotel carbon footprint tool helps accommodation providers estimate the emissions associated with their operations.
- We also offer footprinting tools for events and other business operations, plus a carbon measurement API for OTAs and travel technology companies.
Once you decide how much to contribute, purchase the carbon credits from a reputable provider. Look for high-quality credits that meet rigorous standards and come from projects with evidence-backed climate benefits. We share more guidance on choosing high-quality carbon credits below.
2. Carbon Offset Projects Address Large-Scale Climate Challenges
Your contribution goes to climate projects working at a large scale. One project might use the funding to build a wind farm. Another might help farmers grow more food without clearing rainforests. The projects your money supports depend on the provider and portfolio you choose. Common types of carbon offset projects include:
- Forest projects protect, restore, or improve the management of forests. For example, the Yaeda-Eyasi project protects the ancestral lands of Indigenous communities in Tanzania from being converted into cropland.
- Energy projects replace fossil fuel-based power with clean energy, recover energy from waste, or improve efficiency. For example, the Larimar Wind Farm project in the Dominican Republic harnesses sea breezes to supply clean electricity to the grid.
- Waste projects capture methane, recycle materials, or compost to cut emissions. For example, the Quanzhou Canhua PET Recycling Project in China turns used plastic bottles into new plastic flakes.
- Blue and teal carbon projects protect and restore coastal ecosystems like mangroves and freshwater wetlands. For example, the Valle Paleazza project revitalizes salt marshes in the Venice Lagoon while the Katingan Mentaya project safeguards peat swamp forests in Indonesia.
- Agricultural projects reduce emissions through land and livestock management and increase carbon storage in soil and vegetation. For example, the Rootella project in the U.S. Corn Belt applies mycorrhizal fungi to crops at planting, boosting the plants’ ability to absorb carbon and store it in the soil.
- Technological carbon removal projects use new technologies and processes to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for long periods. For example, the WongPhai Bamboo Biochar project in Thailand turns bamboo waste into biochar and applies it to fields.
Want to see how different carbon offset projects compare at a glance? Explore our Carbon Offset Project Comparison Guide for a side-by-side look at project types.
3. Projects Prevent or Remove Emissions
Whatever their approach, carbon offset projects reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases that would otherwise be in the atmosphere. They fall into two main categories: avoidance and removal.
Avoidance projects prevent future emissions from occurring, for example, by building a wind farm to replace fossil-fuel energy or by protecting forests from being cleared.
Removal projects draw down carbon already in the atmosphere through methods like reforestation, soil carbon sequestration, or direct air capture.
4. Climate Impact Is Verified
The climate impact of these projects isn’t simply taken at face value. Legitimate projects must follow strict rules set by independent carbon offset standards and track their results using tools such as satellite imagery and sensors. Outside experts then check whether the projects actually cut or removed the emissions they say they did.
That’s what sets carbon credits apart from a general donation: the climate impact is measured and verified by an independent party in accordance with international standards.
Voluntary vs. Compliance Carbon Markets
The carbon market is the system where carbon credits are bought and sold. It operates in two forms: the compliance carbon market and the voluntary carbon market. The main difference is that legal requirements drive compliance markets, while voluntary markets are driven by choice.
In the compliance market, governments set emissions caps, requiring high-emission industries, such as energy, aviation, and manufacturing, to reduce their emissions or purchase carbon credits to stay within their limits. Programs like the EU Emissions Trading System and California’s Cap-and-Trade Program are examples.
The voluntary market, by contrast, comprises businesses and individuals who purchase carbon offsets without any legal obligation, typically motivated by sustainability goals, brand values, or customer expectations.
How to Purchase Carbon Offsets
Choosing the Best Carbon Offset Provider
When choosing where to buy carbon offsets, it’s important to look beyond certification and price. The right partner will bring industry-specific expertise, offer transparency into the projects your purchase supports, and conduct extra vetting beyond certification standards to ensure greater credibility and impact.
With deep expertise in travel and tourism, Sustainable Travel International helps businesses and individuals purchase high-quality carbon offsets that reflect what’s most relevant to their goals and the types of emissions they generate. Travelers can use our carbon footprint calculator to purchase verified carbon offsets online. Companies can explore carbon offset programs tailored to their business model, emissions profile, and preferred integration method.
When you purchase carbon offsets with us, your contribution supports a diverse portfolio of high-quality projects, including forestry, energy, blue/teal carbon, and innovative carbon removal solutions. This blended approach keeps offsetting accessible while enabling you to contribute to a broad mix of climate solutions that address emissions from multiple angles. We carefully curate all projects through our internal due diligence process for added quality assurance. We offer transparency in the projects you support—visit our Climate Impact Portfolio to see how your offset contribution is allocated and the environmental and community impact it creates.
To maximize your impact, choose a provider focusing on sustainability action beyond offsets by offering tools, guidance, and strategic support. Sustainable Travel International works with destinations and travel companies to build climate-smart strategies, engage travelers and staff, raise awareness of climate-friendly practices, and support holistic sustainability efforts. Every offset purchase contributes to this broader mission.
Carbon Credit Pricing Considerations
Carbon offsets are generally quite affordable. For instance, purchasing offsets for that round-trip flight from New York to London via our calculator would cost about $24. Making climate solutions like offsets accessible is essential to making them practical and scalable.
The price of a voluntary carbon credit is market-driven and can vary between $1 and $1,000 per metric ton. Factors influencing the price include the type of project, standard, location, size, vintage year, market conditions, and overall quality. Projects that are third-party verified and offer substantial co-benefits are typically more expensive. Credits certified for delivering social and environmental co-benefits sell for a 37% price premium compared to those without such certifications.
Smaller-scale projects tend to be more expensive to implement and generate fewer carbon credits. As a result, their credits are often priced higher to cover implementation costs and remain viable. Similarly, emerging carbon removal technologies carry higher price tags because they haven’t achieved economies of scale yet. In contrast, larger, established technologies like wind or solar energy can often produce credits at a lower price.
Market dynamics also influence pricing. Like the stock market, the carbon market responds to shifts in supply, demand, and buyer sentiment, and prices can fluctuate daily. For example, a surge of corporate buyers aiming to meet new sustainability requirements could drive up prices. At the same time, negative media coverage can raise skepticism, dampening demand and pushing prices down.
Getting Started With Carbon Offsets
Carbon offsets aren’t a substitute for reducing your own emissions. They’re a way to direct funding to climate solutions that go beyond what you could achieve on your own. From protecting forests and expanding clean energy to advancing carbon removal, these projects give individuals and businesses a way to contribute to the larger changes needed to tackle climate change.
Explore our carbon offset solutions to calculate your travel footprint, choose an amount to contribute, or find options for your business.
Calculate and Offset Your Travel Carbon Footprint
