Frequently Asked Questions

You can reach us at our email hello@climatehero.org.

We typically respond within one business day.

No, ClimateHero is an impact startup, meaning we are a for-profit company where profit serves our mission rather than shareholders.

We believe our mission is better served as a fast-growing digital startup than as yet another non-profit environmental organisation. Being commercially independent means we are free from political or ideological affiliations and not dependent on donations or anyone else's agenda.

Any revenue we generate is reinvested into developing the service and reaching more people, because the more people who understand and reduce their climate impact, the closer we get to our goal.

These are the main points of the agreement that apply to the use of ClimateHero's services:

• Service overview: ClimateHero helps individuals and businesses calculate their emissions, identify ways to reduce them, and balance their remaining emissions through carbon credits.
• Business calculator: The ClimateHero Business Calculator operates under its own separate License Agreement [here].
• Carbon credits: ClimateHero offers subscription-based and one-off carbon credit services for individuals and businesses.
• Pricing: Subscription prices are stable and may be adjusted once per year with at least 30 days' notice. One-off prices apply at the time of purchase.
• Climate solutions: ClimateHero offers two types of climate solutions: Gold Standard certified avoided emissions, and long-term carbon removal through biochar. Unless otherwise stated, carbon credits are fulfilled through ClimateHero's Gold Standard portfolio.
• Communication: You will receive occasional emails with updates and tips, with an option to unsubscribe.
• Privacy: Your personal information is protected and shared only as necessary to provide services or comply with legal requirements.

Please note that the above is a summary for convenience only. The full terms and conditions [here] constitute the legally binding agreement between you and ClimateHero.

ClimateHero is run by environmentally conscious entrepreneurs committed to tackling the defining issue of our generation. Read more about us here.

The service operates through the Swedish company Climate Hero AB, founded in 2018. What started as a tool for the Swedish market has grown into an international platform, built around two core services: a Climate Calculator that helps individuals understand and reduce their personal carbon footprint, and a business tool that helps companies measure and manage their organisational emissions.

The company has five co-founders. ClimateHero was born when our CEO Robert Sabelström realised how large his own carbon footprint was and could not find a simple, engaging way to understand and reduce it. That gap became the starting point for everything we have built since.

ClimateHero's mission is to limit global warming to 1.5°C. We do this by helping the planet's inhabitants reduce their carbon footprints.

We don't expect to reach everyone in the world. Instead, we focus on the 10% of the population who (according to Oxfam) cause 50% of global emissions. This 10% includes most of the inhabitants of the Western world. Our overall goal is to influence 100 million of them by 2030.

A carbon credit is a tradable certificate that represents one metric tonne of CO₂e either removed from the atmosphere or prevented from being emitted.

ClimateHero offers you the option to buy carbon credits to balance your emissions — you may also hear this called "carbon offsetting," though we prefer the term "balancing" as it better reflects the goal of bringing your total emissions into equilibrium. It is a smart way to take responsibility for the emissions you have not yet been able to eliminate.

The money you pay goes to climate projects that would not have happened without this funding. These projects are mostly in developing countries, where the focus is on replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy such as solar or wind power, or on capturing carbon dioxide by preserving or planting forests.

We believe that carbon credits should never be used as a way to rationalize or perpetuate unsustainable practices. They should only be considered as an option after first calculating and starting to reduce emissions.

We help users balance their emissions via a portfolio of climate projects that have been chosen to maximize the climate benefit for the lowest possible cost and risk. Furthermore, we make sure that our projects contribute in tangible ways to a region's social improvement.

Balancing across a portfolio of projects means the risk is spread out. That is much more secure than if you were to select a single project. It's the same logic as taking on less risk by investing in a mutual fund instead of buying a single stock.

Read more about our approach to carbon credits.

The ClimateHero Carbon Calculator estimates your carbon footprint in units of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). This is the unit that climate researchers commonly use to deal with the fact that all greenhouse gases do not have the same strength in the greenhouse effect. As an example, 1 tonne of methane gas has the same climate impact as 28 tonnes of carbon dioxide (over a 100-year period). This means that 1 tonne of methane equals 28 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e).

ClimateHero uses about 30 public sources to calculate your carbon footprint. Based on these sources and your answers in the climate calculator, we can estimate the emissions from your private consumption, which amounts to about 10 tonnes of CO₂e per person per year for many of us. The world average, including those living in abject poverty, is around 5 tonnes CO₂e per person per year.

ClimateHero uses the Exponential Roadmap which tells us that climate emissions must be halved by 2030 at the latest. That leads us to a personal climate budget for the average global citizen of about 2.5 tonnes CO₂e per year. But since the world population continues to grow, we round off downwards to a climate budget of 2 tonnes CO₂e per person per year.

That is where we have obtained the four archetypes that we use to categorize your climate footprint:

1. Climate Hero (<2 tonnes) – Already today living within the 2030 global climate budget
2. Climate Friend (2-5 tonnes) – Already helping to decrease the world average
3. Climate Consumer (5-10 tonnes) – Increasing the global average
4. Climate Villain (>10 tonnes) – Exceeding the average among wealthy individuals

Out of the estimate of 10 tonnes CO₂e per capita, you can affect about 80% as a private individual. The remaining 2 tonnes is associated with public investments that you as an individual can’t change through your way of life. These 2 tonnes must be halved before 2030, which is why we single out 1 tonne of these when we calculate your footprint. That means you can’t get a lower footprint than 1 tonne CO₂e in the climate calculator.

It is important that your carbon footprint is calculated as accurately as possible. But to us it is even more important that there is a quick and easy way for you to estimate your footprint and learn from the important lessons in the test. This is why the calculation contains some general assumptions, enabling us to limit the amount of questions and estimate your carbon footprint in five minutes. As a rule of thumb, we have chosen to exclude/simplify questions if the outcome is less than 0.1 tonnes CO₂e per year.

Your carbon footprint should therefore not be interpreted as being precisely correct down to the decimal point. That being said, you will most likely end up in the correct category from the four archetypes we use to portray the carbon footprint (Climate Hero, Climate Friend, Climate Consumer, and Climate Villain).

As ClimateHero aims to help everyone on the planet to reduce their footprint, we use data sources that are internationally viable as far as possible, but supplement with country-specific data where necessary.

Click here to see a list of the data sources that the climate calculator relies upon.

The Gold Standard was founded by WWF and several other NGOs to ensure that carbon credits are issued with the highest possible quality and have no negative impact on the local environment. The projects are subject to the highest auditing requirements and must involve all relevant stakeholders, including the local population.

In addition to ensuring actual climate benefits, the Gold Standard requires that projects contribute to additional sustainable development goals rather than just climate action. This means the climate projects also contribute to improved health and reduced poverty for our planet's most vulnerable inhabitants.

Today, the largest share of carbon emissions globally comes from the combustion of fossil fuels for electricity and heating. While developed countries have sufficient income (high GDP per capita) to make the shift to renewable energy, most developing countries lack the funding to do so.

Carbon credits in developing countries function as an effective form of development aid, as they not only reduce carbon emissions but also contribute to improved health and the reduction of poverty for the planet's most vulnerable inhabitants.

Many people contact us asking how carbon credits can cost so little. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Green technology is becoming more cost-effective every year. That means the subsidy part for each project (which is where you come in!) does not have to be so large for the project to be initiated.
2. Today, only 0.4% of the world's total carbon emissions are balanced, but to meet the 1.5°C goal, this percentage needs to increase fiftyfold. There are still too few people and companies taking responsibility for their climate impact. This in turn means the supply of climate projects exceeds demand, which keeps the price down.
3. ClimateHero analyses and selects projects that provide the most climate benefit for every amount contributed. We buy large volumes at the best available prices, which you and all other subscribers then share. Read more about our climate projects here.

We have external auditors that review our operations, with a special focus on compliance in carbon credits. You will find the audit reports here.

The majority of projects we support are certified by the UN and Gold Standard. You can read more about how the auditing of the projects is conducted here.

You may at any time change or cancel your subscription by informing us via email at hello@climatehero.org. The cancellation period is one month, from the day you contact us. Other changes to your subscription (e.g. adding more people) are carried out immediately.

Your payment is secure. It is handled in encrypted form by Stripe, the world’s third largest payment provider. Established in 120 countries, Stripe processes several million transactions every day. Your credit card details are never visible to ClimateHero or third parties.

We focus on two things.

First, direct climate benefits via verified carbon credits with proven additionality. Because we buy credits in bulk across a portfolio of verified projects, we can keep prices low. We are audited every year to make sure we have issued as many tonnes of carbon credits as we have sold. Read our latest audit here.

Beyond that, your contribution helps drive behavioral change among individuals and businesses to make sustainable habits the norm. On average, when you use ClimateHero you pledge to reduce your footprint by 30%, creating an additional climate benefit that goes beyond the credits themselves.

Balancing emissions and contributing to the climate transition can be done in many different ways. The price varies depending on the type of climate solution, certification, volume, and market conditions. By purchasing large volumes, we can offer stable and competitive prices over time.

We offer two types of certified climate solutions with the following reference prices:

1. Avoided emissions, certified by Gold Standard – €25 per tonne CO₂e – Accelerates the green transition through certified climate projects
2. Long-term carbon removal – €250 per tonne CO₂e – Pyrolysis of residual biomass into biochar, which is stably stored in soil for hundreds of years

Our different services vary in price depending on the mix of climate solutions included. Each service clearly describes how the funds are used and the climate impact they contribute to.

Balance your calculated carbon footprint (subscription)

If you have calculated your carbon footprint in our carbon calculator, we balance 200% of your remaining carbon footprint through Gold Standard-certified climate projects.

The monthly fee is based on your remaining carbon footprint after climate pledges:

• <2 tonnes – €9 per month
• 2–3 tonnes – €12 per month
• 3–5 tonnes – €15 per month
• 5–7 tonnes – €24 per month
• 7–8 tonnes – €30 per month
• 8–10 tonnes – €36 per month
• 10–15 tonnes – €45 per month
• > 15 tonnes – €54 per month

The private subscription applies to carbon footprints of up to 15 tonnes per year. For larger footprints, the subscription balances a footprint of 15 tonnes of CO₂e per year.

Your money will support a portfolio of climate projects that ClimateHero has selected to provide the largest climate effect per unit of funding. Click here to read about the climate projects we have funded so far. We are continuously adding new projects to the list as we grow.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel is jet fuel made from something other than crude oil. Most of it today comes from waste and residue materials such as used cooking oil, animal fats from meat processing and agricultural residues, converted through a process called HEFA. Newer routes make it from captured CO₂ and renewable electricity.

Here is what we commit to for every batch we buy:

• Certified under a recognised sustainability scheme, either ISCC or RSB
• Made from waste or residue feedstocks, never from crops grown for the purpose
• A certified lifecycle emissions reduction of at least 75 % against fossil jet fuel

The exact figure varies by batch, because it depends on the feedstock, the process and how far the fuel travelled. We publish it for every purchase.

SAF is not a complete answer to aviation's climate impact. It's currently under 1 % of global jet fuel, and scaling it depends on demand existing before the price falls. That demand is what your purchase is for.

No. And no service can honestly promise that it will.

Aviation fuel goes into shared airport pipelines, so nobody can direct a specific batch to a specific aircraft. Not us, not the airline, not you. What can be done is to make sure the fuel is produced and put into the aviation system, and that its emissions reduction is allocated to you and recorded.

This is called book-and-claim, and it works like buying renewable electricity. Your particular electrons are not green, but your purchase means more renewable generation exists than otherwise would. The atmosphere does not care which aircraft burns the cleaner fuel. It cares how much fossil kerosene gets displaced.

We buy fuel in batches and allocate against them as customers buy. The fuel is delivered wherever the supply chain puts it, which is rarely the airport you are flying from.

We measure the great-circle distance between the departure and arrival airports, then apply official DESNZ emission factors for economy class. The result includes burning the fuel (TTW), producing the fuel (WTW) and high-altitude effects (RFI).

Read the full methodology on the method page.

Yes. A business seat takes up several times more of the aircraft than an economy seat, so it carries a larger share of the flight's emissions. Our calculator prices an economy seat.

The simplest way to cover the difference is to buy more than one seat:

• Short- and medium haul flights (< 5 hours): select 2 seats for premium economy or business class
• Long-haul flights (> 5 hours): select 3 seats for business class, or 4 seats for first class

These follow the official DESNZ cabin factors, which allocate emissions by how much floor space a seat occupies. Change the seat count before you pay.

It is an honest estimate, not a measurement.

We calculate the great-circle distance between the two airports and apply official DESNZ conversion factors for economy class, including high-altitude effects, plus the emissions from producing the fuel. Real emissions depend on the aircraft, how full it is, the weather and the route flown on the day, none of which any calculator can know in advance.

The largest uncertainty is the high-altitude effects. We use a general factor of 70% add-on, as recommended by DESNZ, but depending on the specific motor, route and weather situation of a flight, the add-on could be anything between 0 and 200.

Because we count three things and most calculators count one.

1. Burning the fuel. The CO₂ released by combustion. This is what almost every calculator shows.
2. Producing the fuel. Extracting, refining and transporting it to the aircraft, which adds around 13 % on top. Official conversion factors publish this separately, so it is routinely left out.
3. High-altitude effects. Contrails and nitrogen oxides warm considerably more when released at cruise altitude than at ground level. This is roughly a third of the total, and it is the component most often omitted.

None of this is unconventional. It is the same underlying data most calculators use. We simply include all of it, and show the three parts separately so you can see exactly where the number comes from.

No.

The EU mandate requires fuel suppliers to blend 2 % SAF. Worldwide, SAF is 0.8 % of jet fuel. Airlines buy the legal minimum and stop, because SAF costs two to five times more than fossil kerosene and every extra litre loses them money.

Nothing moves volume above that minimum except someone paying the difference. That is what your payment does.

It also does more than buy fuel. SAF is expensive largely because it is made in small volumes, so every purchase builds the demand that lets producers scale up and brings down the cost of the next litre. The effect does not stop at the fuel you paid for.

Yes, when that is an option. It is why the calculator shows you what the same trip costs by train, by electric car and by petrol car before it shows you a price.

For short routes the difference is stark. A flight emits around 262 g per passenger-kilometre against roughly 5 g for an electric train. No fuel switch competes with simply not taking off.

But some journeys have no realistic alternative. This is for those.

Your payment buys the same amount of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as your seat burns in fossil fuel. That fuel is produced, certified and delivered into the aviation fuel supply. It does not go into the specific plane you fly on, and "Will my flight run on SAF?" explains why. What matters for the climate is that the fuel gets made and burned instead of fossil fuel, not which engine burns it.

Your payment also funds Gold Standard certified climate projects, covering the part of your flight's impact that a fuel switch cannot address.

You receive a Certificate of Climate Contribution in your name or your company's name, along with a receipt for the purchase.

Approximately 70% buys and retires Sustainable Aviation Fuel, 10% buys and retires Gold Standard certified carbon credits, 20% covers payment processing, certification and running this service.

We publish this split because most services in this field don't. Not that this is averages, as prices for SAF and carbon credits fluctuate, while we strive to keep prices stable.

Partly, and we are explicit about which part.

The SAF portion is not an offset. It is a fuel substitution inside aviation's own supply chain, so less fossil kerosene is burned than would otherwise have been. That is a reduction, and it happens in the sector that caused the emissions.

The remainder is handled with Gold Standard certified climate projects. That covers the emissions from producing the biofuel, plus the high-altitude warming that no fuel switch removes. That part is a contribution to emission reductions elsewhere, and we do not claim it cancels out your flight.

We separate the two because they are different things and deserve different language. Anyone who charges one price and calls the whole thing neutralised is glossing over that distinction.

No. Flying causes warming, and paying afterwards does not undo it.

Roughly two thirds of a flight's climate impact comes from producing and burning the fuel. Switching to SAF removes most of that, currently 75 % for the batch we are allocating from. The remaining third comes from high-altitude effects, meaning contrails and nitrogen oxides, which changing the fuel does not remove.

That works out at about half of your flight's impact addressed by replacing fossil fuel with SAF, and about half by funding Gold Standard certified reductions elsewhere. Your result above shows the exact split for your flight.

The first is a reduction inside aviation. The second is a contribution outside it. Neither erases the flight.

If someone offers to make your flight climate neutral, ask what physically happens to the warming. There is no good answer.