Breaking Down U.S. Carbon Offsets by Project Type in 2026

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May 26, 2026

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Ryan Bellefontaine

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• Abha Patil

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The following content is sponsored by National Public Utilities Council

Breaking Down U.S. Carbon Offsets by Project Type in 2026

Key Takeaways

• Forestry & Land Use leads U.S. carbon offsets, with 46.4% of issued credits.
• Carbon capture represents just 4% of issued credits and only 12 projects, despite its strategic importance to net zero goals.
• Methane Capture and Refrigerants together represent more than half of all projects.

Carbon offsets span a wide range of projects, from forest management to wind power. Together, these activities show how emissions reductions and removals can come from both natural systems and engineered solutions.

This graphic, in partnership with The National Public Utilities Council, shows U.S. carbon offsets by project type in 2026, using data from UC Berkeley’s Voluntary Registry Offsets Database.

A Market Led by Land-Based Projects

The breakdown of projects highlights both the scale of established offset categories and the smaller footprint of newer carbon capture technology.

Here is a table that shows project counts, credits issued, and credit shares by U.S. carbon offset project type.

Methodology

×

Methodology

Berkeley VROD project types were grouped into seven editorial buckets. Forestry & Land Use includes forest management, reforestation, avoided forest/grassland conversion, wetland restoration, and grassland management. Methane Capture includes landfill, manure, mine, wastewater, biodigester, and waste-gas methane projects. Refrigerants includes ozone-depleting substance destruction, refrigerant reclamation, advanced refrigerants, and leak detection. Industrial & Foam Gases includes HFC foam replacement, N₂O destruction, SF₆ replacement, and HFC-23 destruction. Carbon Capture includes carbon capture in concrete, plastics, and enhanced oil recovery. Wind includes wind projects. Other includes smaller categories such as transportation/efficiency, agriculture, waste separation, biochar, biomass, well plugging, lower-carbon materials, recycling, composting, and other miscellaneous project types. Canceled, withdrawn, and inactive projects were excluded.

Across major voluntary registries, forestry and land use lead with 586 projects and 266 million credits, equal to 46% of issuance. Methane capture follows at 18%, while industrial and foam gases contribute 15%, and refrigerants add 12%.

Together, those four categories account for more than nine in 10 credits issued. By contrast, wind contributes 2%, other projects 3%, and carbon capture just 4%.

Why Carbon Capture is Important

Carbon capture accounts for only 12 projects and 22 million credits. That is a small share for a pathway often seen as important to hard-to-abate emissions and long-term net-zero plans.

The pipeline has also been thin. Only two new carbon capture projects have appeared in Berkeley’s registry since 2024, even after the U.S. Department of Energy said less than 5% of the capacity required for net zero by 2050 had been achieved.

What It Means for American IOUs

While rising U.S. data center power demand is pushing load forecasts higher, the offset market still relies heavily on older project types rather than engineered removal.

Therefore, investor-owned utilities (IOUs) may need a broader playbook that pairs grid upgrades, firm supply, and procurement discipline with earlier support for carbon capture.

For example, PPL Corporation subsidiaries Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric are hosting a DOE-backed carbon capture project at Cane Run, showing how utilities can test these tools while planning for growth.

Related Topics: #data centers #carbon capture #methane #carbon offsets #ai #electricity #power #energy

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