Despite belonging to the highly polluting fossil fuel sector, major oil and gas companies are not only among the largest buyers of carbon credits, they are also heavily invested in seeking to shape the voluntary carbon market. This report zooms in this outsized role. It focuses on how oil supermajors employ greenwashing strategies, including offsetting their emissions and using carbon credits to give the illusion of meaningful progress towards reaching their climate targets. Driven by a desire to safeguard the supply of cheap and low-quality carbon credits, some fossil fuel companies have also been engaging with policy and governance processes through both formal and informal channels.
Oil and gas interests pollute the carbon crediting rulebook and invest heavily in a marketplace flush with low-quality carbon credits. A new Carbon Market Watch report demonstrates how some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies use their oversized leverage to influence major decision-making bodies in the voluntary carbon market.
This research finds that climate impact funds support varying mitigation actions, with most funds conducting their own due diligence and encouraging companies to adopt a BVCM approach without misleading compensation claims.
A vacuum of evidence exists to prove the claims of market actors that carbon credits purchased on the voluntary carbon market accelerate corporate internal decarbonisation. An examination of reality shows that market confidence may be driven by noise, rather than a clear signal.
A review of existing studies finds that there is insufficient evidence to support the hypothesis that corporate investments in the voluntary carbon market increase a company’s climate ambition.
27 November 2025 | 15:00-16:00 CET | Online
In our latest report, we assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the finalised Article 6 rulebook and found so many holes, it’s like a sieve. At the COP29 climate conference in Baku, countries concluded nine years of negotiations and finalised the rulebook for United Nations carbon markets under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Since …
Read more “Are Article 6 carbon market rules fit for purpose?”
Amid soaring emissions, not one of the corporations evaluated in the latest Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor received a clean bill of health for its climate strategy, though some isolated improvements occurred. This highlights the vital importance of governments stepping up to better regulate the climate action of the private sector.
Carbon Market Watch submitted this during the global stakeholder consultation of the proposed ‘Comprehensive Lowered Emission Assessment and Reporting (CLEAR) Methodology for Cooking Energy Transitions’ under Article 6.4. The CLEAR methodology is a step in the right direction for clean cookstove methodologies but it still contains shortcomings which must be addressed. Failure to tackle these issues risks perpetuating the pervasive overcrediting linked to many existing cookstove methodologies.
