Race against the climate clock: Can corporations make good on their climate pledges in time?

Corporate climate action is more often than not approached as a branding or marketing exercise, whereas it needs to be about rethinking and redesigning business models. As the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (CCRM) 2025 reveals, companies need to urgently scale up their awareness of and commitment to transformative change by rolling out a number of …

New VCMI guidance risks justifying carbon offsetting and delaying real corporate climate action, NGOs say

In new guidance, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) is promoting the use of carbon credits to camouflage the fact that companies grappling with their indirect (scope 3) emissions are off track to reach their commitments. But carbon credits must not replace direct emissions reductions, NGOs warn.

Behind the green curtain: big oil and the voluntary carbon market

Shell was the world’s largest user of carbon credits in 2024, a year in which fossil fuel companies dominated the voluntary carbon market. This allows them to pretend they are taking significant climate action, while continuing with business as usual. Since the ratification of the Paris Agreement, companies have shifted the way they consider and …

Cooking the climate books: New peer-reviewed study finds carbon credit impact vastly overstated

Over 80% of carbon credits issued by more than 2,000 projects have a much lower climate impact than they claim, a new meta study finds. This has serious implications for the role of carbon markets in combating the climate crisis. The peer-reviewed paper, whose lead author was Benedict Probst of the Max Planck Institute appeared …

VCMI’s new framework needlessly endangers its credibility

The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity initiative’s latest guidance on the use of carbon credits by companies undermines VCMI’s stated mission of combating greenwashing and setting out a framework for making valid climate claims.  Last year, VCMI published its long anticipated Claims Code of Practice, which provides guidance for companies on how to use carbon credits …