carbon budget

Noun

carbon budget (plural carbon budgets)

1. The maximum cumulative amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions compatible with a given global-warming target (e.g., 1.5 °C), for a stated probability and from a stated baseline date.
   • People are not aware that there is such a thing as a carbon budget, and just how incredibly small that remaining carbon budget is.2019 January 25, 4:09 from the start, in Our House is on Fire, spoken by Greta Thunberg, Davos, Graubünden, Switzerland: World Economic Forum
2. (policy) An emissions cap or allocation set for a period (year, multi-year, etc.) for a country, organisation, sector, or project so as to follow a target trajectory.
   • The building of new homes under a business-as-usual scenario … would mean the housing system would use up 104% of the country’s cumulative carbon budget by 2050.2022 August 22, Phoebe Weston, “England’s housing strategy would blow entire carbon budget, says study”, in The Guardian
3. (broadly) A planning document detailing such caps and their trajectory (e.g., a university’s “2024–2028 carbon budget”).

   Synonyms:

   emissions budget, emissions cap