Carbon Market Watch welcomes EU ban on “carbon neutrality” greenwashing

Companies selling in the European Union will no longer be able to claim that their products are carbon or climate neutral, the EU has provisionally agreed. This victory against greenwashing corresponds to longstanding demands from climate campaigners to eliminate the use of offsets and send a signal to the voluntary carbon market.

Integrity Council’s rulebook sets minimum threshold instead of high bar for carbon markets

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s latest guidelines provide a set of much-needed incremental improvements but fail to raise the quality of carbon credits sufficiently and leave too much wiggle room to truly tackle the climate crisis. The ICVCM has the opportunity to clear up the loopholes and ambiguities when it issues its first assessments of carbon market programmes.

Greta Thunberg and other activists at the Bonn climate change conference

Penetrating the technical fog clouding Article 6 carbon markets

Following the technical deadlock and glacial pace of progress at the Bonn climate conference, negotiators need to get their act together before COP28. Climate commitments should shape the further development of carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, otherwise the environment and society will lose out.

Building with plants growing on the facade

New carbon market code of practice discourages companies from greenwashing

Guidance on the use of carbon credits by private companies published today by the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI) is a step in the right direction to rein in greenwashing. The proposed set of rules forms a welcome basis to move the conversation forward but more attention should be given to how companies can contribute to climate action outside of carbon markets.

Plenary session at 2022 Bonn Climate Conference

Devil in the details at 2023 Bonn climate conference

If the country-to-country carbon market established under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement is to have any credibility, negotiators meeting at the UN intersessional climate conference in Bonn must agree on the fine print that prevents double counting, abandons secrecy and promotes accountability.

Integrity Council’s new carbon market rules offer improvements but don’t close all loopholes

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has just released a set of new rules which seek to boost the quality of carbon credits for offsetting but ignore other issues with the market. While this is an improvement on current practices, the problematic concept of offsetting itself must be abandoned. As part of its …