Carbon offsetting is a relatively new trend in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and unlike in greenhouse reduction, the long and the short of it is this: you have to pay for your greenhouse gas emissions with a little tree planting after a business travel or a vacation in Morocco.

Of course, the currency for payment is not just the trees. In exchange for heating your home or your car rentals in Morocco, you can use other sources of power for your electricity needs, conserve energy, or simply burn the methane in your animal farm.

Carbon offsetting is essentially a voluntary act by companies and individuals, travel tourists on journeys travel included. Unlike in emission trading, a strict framework that is steeped in formality and legality does not regulate it. Rather, they are voluntary acts by individuals and companies with the support of carbon-offset providers who don’t do it for the money.

However, carbon offsetting has also taken on a more formal structure, and you can hear about individual and corporate volunteers purchasing and withdrawing emissions trading credits. This has created a connection between the voluntary carbon markets and the regulated carbon markets.

At the onset, many people thought that planting trees was the only available option for carbon offsetting, and indeed, it was the star for sometime. Tree planting was the mainstay in corporate outreach programs for the environment. These days, carbon offsetting can also mean using renewable forms of energy like wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power and biofuel.

Conserving energy is also being used for carbon offsetting credits. This can be in the form of (a) constructing cogeneration plants for generating and electricity from the same power source, (b) implementing fuel efficiency projects, and (c) constructing energy efficient buildings.

Capturing methane, combusting, or containing methane from animal farms, landfills and industrial waste dumpsites is also another currency for gaining carbon offsetting credits.