What are carbon credits?

Credits can be sold in the international market at the prevailing prices via certain credit exchanges. Formalized in the Kyoto Protocol, carbon credits help developing/ underdeveloped countries as they traditionally have lower per-capita carbon emissions than developed countries and will need to emit CO₂ owing to increasing industrial growth. At this point though, these countries can sell their carbon credits to other countries and reap the economic benefits of not polluting the planet.