Climate positive
A marketing term for claims that an organisation or product removes or compensates for more greenhouse gas than it emits.
Example
A clothing brand might use the label after buying credits that exceed its estimated footprint.
The catch
The label has no agreed definition, and EU rules bar offset-based product claims of positive emissions impact.
Related terms
Greenhouse gas, Audit trail, Calibration, Carbon neutral, Conflict of interest, Contribution claim
In more depth
Climate positive, explained.
Climate positive, carbon negative and even carbon positive are used for the same idea, which shows how loosely the language has developed. Carbon positive is the oddest of the three, since it sounds like adding carbon. The IPCC uses net negative emissions in a precise sense, for a period when global removals exceed emissions, and a company's purchase of surplus credits is a different thing.
The margin that makes a claim positive is thin and fragile. If the footprint leaves out Scope 3 emissions or relies on rough averages, the surplus may vanish on closer measurement, and if the credits are for reductions, nothing has been removed at all. Ask what was removed, how durably, and how the footprint was drawn.