Carbon offsets are an important way to encourage emission reductions and sustainable development.  For businesses, project sponsors, and developers, carbon offsets provide an economic asset that can greatly improve the business case for new projects.  Carbon offsets are a tradable commodity and have a variety of markets.

Carbon offsetting is an increasingly popular means of taking action. By paying someone else to reduce GHG emissions elsewhere, the purchaser of a carbon offset aims to compensate or offset their own emissions. Individuals seek to offset their travel emissions and companies claim climate neutrality by buying large quantities of carbon offsets to neutralize their carbon footprint or that of their products.

There are currently many voluntary carbon offset standards in use in the United States.  Most of these are at least partially based on the Kyoto CDM methodology.  A sample of voluntary carbon offset standards is listed below.

Voluntary Carbon Offset Standards

• Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)
• CDM Gold Standard
• VER +
• California Climate Action Registry (CCAR)
• Green-e Climate
• Climate, Community, Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA)
• Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX)
• American Carbon Registry