Offset your CO₂ emissions reliably, in Europe

If you take out a climate subscription with us or make a one-off donation, we will offset your CO₂ emissions through effective climate protection in Europe. You will receive a certificate with details of your CO₂ offset.

You will also receive an official donation receipt, which you can use for your tax return in Germany. This allows you to fully deduct your donation from your taxes.

If you wish, you will receive badges (digital stickers) for your website. They will show how much CO₂ you have offset. You can find examples of badges and certificates here.

Yes, you will automatically receive your donation receipt via email at the beginning of the following calendar year. If you pay taxes in Germany, you can use this receipt to deduct the cost of your climate subscription from your taxes. Are you taxed in another European country? Then the deductibility of donations depends on the local regulations in your area.

Our prices reflect the high quality of our CO₂ offsetting approach in Europe. They are made up of two climate protection measures: the cost of initial afforestation in Germany and buying away EU emission rights.

The price for planting trees in Germany includes the cost of buying tree seedlings, the preparation of the area, the planting of the seedlings and all measures to protect the young trees, such as fencing.

The market price of EU emission rights is set by supply and demand. Therefore, the cost of this manner of offsetting depends on the price of emission rights in the EU Emissions Trading System.

We buy emission rights in advance, at favourable conditions, and estimate how the emission price will develop in the course of the year. This way, we keep our offset price stable for as long as possible. So far, we have managed to adjust our CO₂ offset prices no more than twice a year. When we do have to adjust our prices, we ensure that this is communicated transparently. So that you can choose whether you would like to adjust your monthly donation or your offset amount. CO₂ offsetting through emission rights is subject to 19 per cent VAT. As a non-profit organisation, we can use all of our donation income for climate protection.

From the very beginning, our goal was not to compromise on the quality of our climate protection measures. We want to offer you the safest and most effective way to offset CO₂. That’s why we offset locally, in Europe.

CO₂ offsetting through mixed forests requires trees to live a long time so they can absorb a large amount of CO₂ from the air. If we were to plant our trees in other countries, we would not be able to quickly and efficiently check whether the tree seedlings are really doing well.

That’s why we believe it makes sense to afforest or reforest in countries where the entire forest area is protected. In Germany, forests are protected by the Bundeswaldgesetz (Federal Forest Act). This means that, for instance, forest fires are quickly extinguished and illegal logging is prevented.

In addition, EU emissions trading is a unique system that allows us to reduce CO₂ emissions and drive forward the energy transition at the same time.

Additionality is extremely important in CO₂ offsetting. CO₂ offsetting is only effective if the climate protection project you are supporting would not have been realised without your contribution. This means that the project only exists because you are supporting it.

For example: imagine a hydropower plant somewhere in the world. This plant is usually profitable and finances itself. Using it to offset your carbon footprint would therefore not be additional. The plant finances itself. No additional CO₂ is saved here. The plant would run regardless of your contribution and the CO₂ would be saved anyway. This is a classic example of no additionality.

At ForTomorrow, on the other hand, additionality (in German) is the main principle guiding our approach. We only plant forests in places where no forests would otherwise be created. We buy emission rights from the market. If we didn’t buy the emission rights away, nobody would do it. With your support, we prevent companies from using emission rights and emitting CO₂. This is how we additionally and measurably save CO₂.

Yes, you can make an amazing difference! Do you know the story of the hummingbird? A terrible fire burns in the jungle. The hummingbird flies to the nearest stream, takes a few drops in his beak and pours them onto the flames, then he flies back to the water to get more. “Are you crazy”, says the sloth, “you’ll never put out the fire with those few drops” and the hummingbird replies: “I know, but I’m doing my part”.

In the fight against climate change, every tenth of a degree matters. Even if we can no longer prevent climate change, we can all help to keep global warming as low as possible.

Every tenth of a degree saves animal species from extinction, minimises sea level rise and reduces periods of heat and drought as well as the spread of dangerous diseases.

We deliberately opted for the two climate protection measures cancelling EU emission rights and afforestation because we want to promote effective climate protection here in Europe.

You can adjust or cancel your subscription at any time using this form.

In the EU, the energy sector, industry and (in some cases) airlines have to buy emission rights for their CO₂ emissions every year. The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) covers 40 per cent of industry. Just as you have to pay for the disposal of your waste, the companies involved have to pay for their CO₂ emissions.

However, the amount of emission rights is limited by the EU so that carbon emissions in 2030 are at least 55 per cent lower than in 1990.

The emissions from industry are recorded and checked every year by the TÜV. Emission rights must then be submitted for the recorded quantity, otherwise penalties will be imposed.

We buy up emission rights and set them aside in a special account. We then decommission or cancel these emission rights without utilising them. This is how we reduce the permitted CO₂ emissions of European industry, ensure that sustainable technologies are established, and drive forward the energy transition.

In our monthly Impact Report, we share our account statement on the cancelled emission rights. We are scientifically monitored by Prof. Dr Grischa Perino from the University of Hamburg. He verifies that the EU emission rights are actually used for climate protection, which is crucial to us.

The German government auctions emission rights on the EEX energy exchange. The money collected goes towards the Energy and Climate Fund and is invested in climate protection. In 2018, for example, over 1 billion euros were used for the low-carbon Building Refurbishment Programme and the continued development of electromobility.

No, the scarcity of emission rights does not change how many goods are produced in the EU; it changes the way they are produced.

Let’s take the example of electricity production in the EU. If the price of emission rights goes up, the short-term effect is that electricity is produced with lower CO₂ emissions, e.g. in efficient gas-fired power plants.

In the long term, it will result in the increased construction of plants that do not emit any CO₂ at all during electricity production, e.g. wind power.

No. We asked our scientific advisor Prof Dr. Grischa Perino this very same question before ForTomorrow was founded.

He believes it is possible the EU would limit ForTomorrow’s influence on the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) if we cancelled so many emission rights at once that we would jeopardise the functioning of the system. We would have to buy hundreds of millions of emission rights to get to that point, but we are a long way from that.

The EU’s goal is to reduce emissions in order to achieve the Paris target of keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees. The EU ETS is the primary instrument to achieve this. When it was designed, the cancellation of emission rights for additional climate protection was already considered a valid approach.

The market stability reserve in the European Emissions Trading System was introduced to stabilise the prices on the CO₂ market. The following events led to a high surplus of emission rights:

• Relative to demand, too many emission rights were made available to industrial companies and plant operators. Unused emission rights can be carried over from one year to the next.
• During the 2008/2009 economic crisis, industrial emissions fell more sharply than expected due to lower production.
• Plants were allowed to offset some of their emissions by reducing emissions in developing countries.

These events resulted in a large number of emission rights remaining unused. The EU therefore decided to auction fewer rights and transfer the unauctioned portion to a market stability reserve.

The EU not only records how many emission rights are on the market, but also how many have been used for actual CO₂ emissions and how many have been cancelled. Based on the number of available emission rights, the EU calculates how many rights will be auctioned and how many will be transferred to the market stability reserve.

In 2023, the market stability reserve started to cancel surplus quantities of emission rights. This means that if we refrain from cancelling our emission rights, they will still be counted by the EU as available surplus quantities which will result in the EU cancelling even more rights. If we did cancel our emission rights, the EU might cancel fewer. Therefore, we put the emission rights in our account so that they are no longer available on the market but they will be counted. We then only cancel our emission rights when the EU has stopped cancelling theirs.

This happens when no more emission rights are transferred to the market stability reserve. Under the current regulation, this is the case when the surplus of emission rights falls below 833 million.

No, because that would not be climate protection. If you buy emission rights and release them again, they will then be used to emit CO₂.

For effective climate protection, emission rights must be permanently withdrawn from circulation. If you buy emission rights away from industry with us, they can never be used again.

Absolutely! If you didn’t support us in taking these emission rights off the market, they would simply be used by companies to emit CO₂. We can only prevent tonnes of CO₂ from being emitted because you cancel these emission rights with us.

Honestly, planting trees in tropical regions is most cost effective. So why don’t we plant trees there?

To have a positive impact on the climate, the long-term sustainability of trees is crucial. A freshly planted tree only absorbs small amounts of CO₂ from the air. The bigger it grows the more CO₂ it captures.

Just reducing CO₂ emissions is no longer enough. Atmospheric CO₂ levels have risen so much that even if the whole world lived carbon neutral from now on, climate change would continue.

Planting a tree is not very beneficial to the climate if it dies of dehydration, is caught in a wildfire or is cut down for more economically attractive farmland.

That’s why we plant trees in Germany. In Germany, forests are protected by the Bundeswaldgesetz (Federal Forest Act). Wildfires are quickly put out and illegal logging is prevented. In addition, should any trees be damaged, the owners of the forest are responsible for reforesting the affected areas.

Research from experts has made it clear. Despite new and promising technologies, the most efficient and cost effective climate protection measure is to simply plant trees.

Offsetting CO₂ through afforestation with ForTomorrow means that we plant mixed forests in Germany. Up until now, it has taken a maximum of one year from your CO₂ offset to the actual planting of trees.

We are constantly looking for suitable areas for initial afforestation in Germany. Once we have identified an appropriate piece of land, the landowners have to agree to our planting code.

For our afforestation projects we work together with the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald (Conservation association for German Forests). This nature conservation organisation has been planting trees throughout Germany for over 60 years. In addition, we work with local foresters to ensure that local conditions are taken into account as well as possible.

Finally, we inspect the areas ourselves to check whether the afforestation meets our standards and to monitor tree growth.

We regularly schedule afforestation events where supporters from ForTomorrow can partake. Sign up to receive our monthly newsletter (German) to find out about our community afforestations.

We work together with district foresters on state-owned land. The foresters look after the newly planted forest. These specialists work on behalf of the respective state or district.

If damage occurs to the forest area, then by law the area has to be reforested and the damage must be compensated for. The owner of the land has 36 months to do so.

The forested land belongs to the public landowners with whom we work together—the owner of our afforestation area in Drelsdorf, for instance, is the Schleswig-Holstein state forest. The land and the trees growing on it are still owned by the landowners, but they must agree to our planting code, in order for us to plant trees on their land.

If this were to happen, we could demand a refund of our donation, and the state forest would almost certainly lose their certification and no longer be able to sell its timber competitively on the market. In addition to this economic consequence, there is also a legal one.

All forest is protected by the State Forest Act (Landeswaldgesetz) in Schleswig-Holstein. Once an area has the legal status of a forest, it can only be converted into another form of land use with great difficulty and comprehensive justification. In most cases, an overriding reason of social relevance is necessary for this, for example, for the construction of critical infrastructure.

Even then, the forest would be preserved because those in charge are required to plant at least the same amount of forest in another location to compensate for the loss.

Yes, we only plant trees where no forests would otherwise be created. With your help, we ensure that new forest areas are developed and that the total forest area in Germany increases.

We plant five trees to sequester an average of one tonne of CO₂. Why five trees? Because after 80 years, only about 520 trees of various ages will remain out of 4,000 trees. Together, these trees store 822 tCO₂. If we divide the 4,000 planted trees by the actual amount of 822 tonnes stored, we arrive at 4.9 trees, or five trees (in German).

When calculating how much CO₂ the planted trees remove from the air, we use an average value. We base this on the method of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is also used for the National Forest Inventory (Bundeswaldinventur).

According to a study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, an additional 3.18 million hectares of forest can be planted in Germany. That’s an area 12 times the size of Saarland. To do our part to protect the climate, this is the area size we should afforest.