The voluntary carbon market (VCM) is often championed as a key tool for combating climate change and funding climate mitigation projects, especially in economically disadvantaged regions like Africa. Despite Africa’s minimal contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, the continent is heavily impacted by climate change. Recently, the number of VCM projects on the continent has increased …
Read more “Due south: Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market”
A new report finds that despite improvements, serious shortcomings persist in the grievance mechanisms of the standards. These shortcomings limit the access to recourse for those adversely affected by carbon market projects.
The banking sector’s anticipated upswing in investment in the voluntary carbon market has failed to materialise, new research reveals.
Whilst REDD+ credits have been the subject of intense media and civil society scrutiny, the same cannot be said of renewable energy projects, which are plagued by similar issues when used for offsetting, yet manage to hide in plain sight. Serious concerns exist regarding the use of renewable energy projects to generate carbon credits. Those …
Read more “Hidden in plain sight: Flawed renewable energy projects in the voluntary carbon market”
Carbon Market Watch strongly condemns the SBTi Board of Trustees’ announcement to recognise carbon credits as a way to “abate” scope 3 emissions. These indirect, value chain emissions usually make up the lion’s share of a company’s carbon footprint.
As this year’s edition of the CCRM reveals, the median absolute emissions reduction commitments by 2030 for the 51 companies assessed was as little as 30% (and 33% at the most optimistic), whereas the world needs a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and 48% in carbon emissions below 2019 levels to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
A new report by Carbon Market Watch has raised concerns over a lack of transparency and accountability within the unregulated voluntary carbon market caused by the unavailability of important project documents from the four biggest carbon crediting standards.
This joint letter urges the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to refrain from granting companies the “flexibility” to offset a portion of their scope 3 (indirect value chain) emissions. “This approach is counterproductive, and largely backed by actors with direct financial interests in …
Read more “Open letter on the use of carbon credits to meet scope 3 GHG targets”
This analysis assesses the public availability of project documentation across the four main voluntary carbon market registries: Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Gold Standard (GS), American Carbon Registry (ACR), and the Climate Action Reserve (CAR). These standards were selected as they collectively issue the majority of the world’s (voluntary market) carbon credits.
