Are Carbon Offsets Helping Tackle Climate Change? A Udemy Course

This course is for people who want to understand the evolution of carbon offsets over the last 30+ years and anyone wanting to understand the role of carbon offsets in mitigating climate change


Understanding Carbon Offsets

Carbon offsets have been a popular climate change mitigation option, but they have also been contentious. This course provides you with an in-depth understanding of what kind of commodity carbon offsets are, how they have evolved, the biggest challenges offsets have encountered, and where offset markets might be headed next.

Why You Need This Course

Are you new to carbon offsets and carbon markets? Are you considering purchasing or investing in carbon offsets? Do you want to understand the role of carbon offsets in mitigating climate change? Are you interested in improving the environmental integrity of offsets? Then you should take advantage of this course to leverage thousands of hours of carbon offsets experience.

What You Will Learn

Understand the 30+ year history of carbon offsets

Explore the definition of and key criteria for qualifying as a carbon offset

Understand why carbon offsets have proven to be so challenging and contentious

Understand issues associated with buying or investing in carbon offsets

What Customers Say


Overall, a superb course!

Overall, a superb course. Dr. Trexler‘s comprehensive knowledge allows him to simplify a fairly muddy discussion. He’s able to take a big subject and boil it down to the essential simpler parts. This is a huge plus for viewers. I especially liked the non-polemic tone. This is clearly an educational course, not a partisan viewpoint. Well done!


Jeffrey Atkin CEO, World Forest Group

Really appreciated this course!

I really appreciated the Carbon Offsets Course. It’s amazing how hard it is to find good resources and thinking like this on carbon offsets. None of my typical channels/NGOs surface things like this. Highly recommend.


Max Scher Senior Mgr Sustainability, Salesforce

Full of valuable information

I'm here to recommend this 2-hour course, packed full of valuable information, which covers some key concepts —permanence, additionality, and leakage— and also raises a couple of critical questions such as the current status of carbon offsets and where carbon offset markets are headed. Go check it out, you'll love it.


Martina Verdun Financial Translator

Great course

All I can say is: Five stars!


Laura Gonzalez Mantecon

Excellent course

The course was excellent: well-organized, intelligent, clear, and informed by Dr. Trexler's years of experience. I highly recommend it.


Charles Wilson

Well done

This is a great course!


Jean Pierre du Plessis

About The Course Instructor, Dr. Mark Trexler

Dr. Mark Trexler worked on the first carbon offset project while on the staff of the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC, and worked extensively with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on carbon offset and natural climate solution topics. He has participated in the development of and due diligence on hundreds of carbon offset projects, and his team at EcoSecurities (one of the major carbon market players in Round 1) developed the first carbon offset scoring system. Mark has advised clients around the world on climate change risk and risk management, co-authored the first textbook on business climate risk, teaches climate change mitigation at George Washington University, and co-developed the Climate Web decision-support system. He holds advanced degrees from the University of California at Berkeley.

Mark's work on climate change knowledge management is inspired by Carla O'Dell's quote: "If only we knew what we know." The information to solve climate change exists, but it rarely gets to the right person at the right time. The Climatographers want to help change that. We welcome your feedback and ideas about our courses.

Get Started Today!

>