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Environment & Climate vocabulary · Emissions and Carbon

Carbon neutral

Meaning in environment & climate, with examples

/ˌkɑːrbən ˈnuːtrəl/adjectiveCore term

In environment & climate, carbon neutral means: Describing an organization, product or event whose net carbon emissions over a period are zero, usually because the emissions that remain are balanced with carbon credits.

In Turkish: karbon nötr

How it is used

Used in marketing and corporate claims: a carbon-neutral company, become carbon neutral, carbon-neutral delivery. The noun is carbon neutrality. Regulators now examine such claims closely, and some EU consumer rules restrict claims that rely only on offsets. Hyphenate it before a noun.

Example sentences

  1. The organizers say the conference was carbon neutral, using renewable power and certified carbon credits.

  2. The company plans to become carbon neutral in its own operations by 2030.

Common collocations

  • become carbon neutral
  • carbon-neutral company
  • carbon neutrality
  • carbon-neutral by 2030
  • net zeroA state in which the greenhouse gases a country or company still emits, after deep emission cuts, are balanced by the same amount being removed from the atmosphere.
  • carbon offsetA reduction or removal of emissions somewhere else, such as in a forestry or clean cookstove project, that an organization pays for to compensate for its own emissions.
  • carbon creditA tradable certificate representing one tonne of CO2e that a certified project has reduced, avoided or removed from the atmosphere.
  • greenwashingMaking misleading claims that a company, product or investment is better for the environment than it really is, for example through vague labels or selective data.

More terms: Emissions and Carbon

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