Carbon offsetting is doing something (e.g. planting vegetation) that cancels out the effect of CO2 emissions being made elsewhere. The total of the two, is net-zero. ClimatePositive goes further and offsets more than CO2 than is being emitted, hence the ‘positive’.

Some activities are harder to decarbonize than others: for example, tackling road transport is particularly complex and expensive. In the decades ahead with technology changes, we will be able to decarbonize all activities.

But the environment can’t wait. We need action now. Carbon offsetting funds activities that capture carbon, eliminate it or avoid its production in the first place. For example, if coal-fired power can be eliminated by the funding of solar via carbon offsets then we are making immediate, meaningful progress.

We have used European and American government statistics for the average amount of driving done by passenger cars. Next, we looked at the highest emissions by distance travelled from 800 different car models as published by the UK NGO, “Which.”

By multiplying distance travelled, by emissions per mile/kilometre for the highest emitting vehicles we get to a large aggregate annual number. We then add a further 25% to ensure we are ClimatePositive. Full details are shown in our Basis of Preparation.

Other providers of carbon offsets require you to know in advance what distance you will travel in the future, as well as a series of other guesses and estimates. That complexity is an off-putting, unnecessary burden. ClimatePositive keeps costs and complexity as low as possible, making it easier for our customers to sign up and enabling us to offer the best price.