Calculate Your Climate Footprint

We are all responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Nearly everything we do, from driving a car to growing food, produces these gases. 

Calculate your climate footprint and then offset your emissions by buying United Nations-certified climate credits.

Offset Your Footprint and Bring Cleaner Air and Water in the Developing World

When you offset, you improve the health and livelihood of people in India, China and other developing nations.

These climate credits are created by projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries. These projects either remove emissions from the atmosphere, for example by absorbing them in trees. Or they avoid new greenhouse gases by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy such as solar or wind energy.

In addition to reducing emissions, they also contribute to education and health improvements in local towns and villages. Some also improve local air and water quality or protect the local environment.

Build a brighter future for developing nations and take responsibility for your climate footprint. Calculate your climate footprint and then offset with United Nations-certified climate credits.

"We all need to take personal responsibility to combat the threat of climate change. Join me in the Climate Neutral Now initiative to reduce the impact of climate change and offset carbon emissions. Help protect the ecosystems that sustain biodiversity and save the livelihoods of billions of people around the world." Edward Norton Actor, filmmaker and activist UN Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity

Learn About UN-Certified Climate Credits

To learn more about offsetting your climate footprint with UN-certified climate credits, watch this video:

Frequently Asked Questions about Offsetting

What is offsetting?

Offsetting means that for emissions that you are not able to reduce at home, you reduce the equivalent amount elsewhere. For example, when you purchase and cancel UN-certified climate credits, you fund projects that reduce emissions in developing countries. The project might install new renewable energy facilities, restore forests, provide clean cook stoves or improve energy efficiency in homes. Offsets with high environmental integrity help you reduce global emissions elsewhere to balance out the unavoidable emissions you cause in your day-to-day life.​

Why offset? Don’t we want to reduce emissions?

To achieve climate neutrality, we must measure what we emit and then reduce our emissions. Even with our best efforts to reduce, daily activities and business operations will result in unavoidable emissions. This is why offsetting, only after measuring and reducing, is key.

Offsetting is not a way to avoid taking action. Where emissions cannot be entirely eliminated, offsetting demonstrates a commitment to greenhouse gas management while society works toward climate neutrality in the second half of the 21st century.​

Why offset with UN Certified Climate Credits?

Offsetting funds existing projects and encourages more emission reductions while spurring additional clean and green development.

This United Nations programme offers a robust portfolio of climate credits to choose from. With more than 7500 registered projects in 105 developing countries, and 27 project types, credits are available to help meet a wide variety of sustainability and social responsibility objectives.

How are UN climate credits generated?

UN-certified climate credits are generated from projects that reduce GHG emissions via a variety of methods. These projects can, amongst other approaches:

• Replace the use of dirty fossil fuels with clean renewable energy (wind, hydro, solar, biomass)
• Reduce energy consumption and the use of fossil fuels through energy efficiency measures (clean cooking stoves, energy efficient light bulbs)
• Capture already-released carbon in trees and other plants (reforestation and forest regeneration projects), amongst other approaches
• These projects have been responsible for avoiding more than 1.5 billion tonnes of GHG emissions

How are climate ​credits calculated?

Projects and other globally recognised climate credits enable every day practices like food preparation, transportation, electricity generation and product manufacturing, to be reformed in a way that generates fewer GHGs. The exact amount of GHGs avoided are calculated by comparing what emissions would have been without the project to what the emissions are with the project in place. For each tonne of CO2 avoided, one credit is earned.

For example, generating 36,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year with a modern diesel generator emits 28,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. If a hydro project were to replace the diesel energy with clean hydro power energy, then those 28,000 tonnes of CO2 would be avoided each year, earning the CDM project 28,000 annual credits.

How do I know that offsetting projects are trustworthy?​​

CERs are emission reductions units certified according to strict rules laid down under the auspices of the United Nations. All projects are thoroughly vetted to ensure that claimed emission reductions are real, measurable and additional to what would have occurred without the project.