Definitions for "Carbon budget"
The amount of carbon released into the atmosphere by net sources, whether natural factors, like dying plants, or human activities, like burning fossil fuel, minus the amount of carbon absorbed by the ocean, growing green plants and other carbon "sinks."
Comparative evaluation of the amount of carbon stored in natural forests (sinks) and the amount emitted by them (sources), which is undertaken to determine whether the forests are sequestering more carbon than they are emitting to the atmosphere. Carbon budgets can be drawn up on various scales, including global.
an inventory of carbon in carbon pools and the balance of exchange between the pools.