Carbon Jargon

We try to stay away from acronyms but here’s a glossary of some commonly used acronyms and terminology in the carbon offset industry.

Carbon Instruments/Units
AAU – Assigned Amount Unit (Kyoto developing country allowance)
CER – Certified Emission Reduction (CDM)
CRT – Climate Reserve Tonne (California)
ERU – Emission Reduction Unit (JI)
EUA – EU Allowance (European Union)
VCU – Voluntary Carbon Unit (VCS Standard)
VER – Verified or Voluntary Emission Reduction (Voluntary markets)
tCO₂e – generic/standard unit for all greenhouse gases: metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent 

Offset Project Standards
ABOS - Alberta Offset System
BC EOR - British Columbia Emission Offsets Regulation
CAR - Climate Action Reserve (California)
CCBA - Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance
EU-ETS - European Union Emissions Trading System
GS - Gold Standard
ISO - International Standard Organization Project Standard 14064-2
VCS - Verified Carbon Standard
VER+ - “VER plus” voluntary emission reduction standard developed by TÜV SÜD