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Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The Quiet Comeback of Voluntary Carbon Markets
It is widely agreed that a large part of decarbonization will occur through market-based solutions that put a price on carbon. A growing part of the world's carbon emissions are covered by mandatory carbon markets – regional or national – the so-called compliance markets. But market watchers see an ongoing need for voluntary markets, in which companies and organizations purchase carbon credits to offset their carbon emissions. In fact, a convergence of voluntary and compliance markets is beginning to appear, potentially opening new demand for credits from projects around the world, including carbon removal projects through technical and natural methods. This growing convergence opening large sources of new demand for carbon credits promises to provide essential funding for breakthrough technologies in carbon-free energy. The voluntary carbon market (VCM), which has at times been on the verge of extinction over the past two decades, may well be on the cusp of a resurgence that draws private capital into promising technologies and projects, especially projects in lower-income countries. Tiny market, huge potential Compared to compliance markets, the VCM is quite small. Yet around it has developed a remarkable infrastructure of registries, standard-setting bodies, project developers, rating agencies and brokers. Its basic unit is a ton of carbon permanently removed or not put into the atmosphere. 'It's a tiny market, covering perhaps 0.3 percent of global emissions,' says Lars Kroijer, Managing Director, AlliedOffsets, a UK-based data and market intelligence provider for the VCM. 'It's a rounding error of a rounding error.' With his company tracking thousands of projects from some 8000 developers listed on numerous registries, for corporate clients worldwide, he's gained global perspective and sees enormous potential in the VCM.'This space has tremendous potential, it can be a hundred times bigger and still be small,' he says. He thinks the voluntary market can play a key role to spur investment in tech solutions, specifically carbon dioxide removals (CDR). Such solutions extend beyond nature-based tree-planting, which cannot scale enough. They require sustained investment in research and engineering. Now, engineered CDR projects are the most expensive in the market, their credits costing up to $500 and more. The key factor for any breakthrough technology is that it must scale quickly at much lower cost. AlliedOffsets has created a database of what it calls 'moonshots'; projects that are underway now. 'It's a way to keep track of where we are with potentially huge, game changing solutions, in addition to some of the less scalable stuff,' says Kroijer. 'Because we need a lot of money to go into this space, not just planting trees,' he says. 'It needs a lot of investment and costs to come down by a large factor, more than solar did, for it to be competitive decarbonization.' Now, with the expansion of national and regional compliance markets, he says there's a huge incentive to allow voluntary credits into compliance markets, creating new demand for projects that could potentially, with enough funding, change the world. As an example, Kroijer suggests mineralization; a rock combined with a chemical process that can capture and hold carbon. There are actual projects like this. If one breakthrough project could be made to scale, to become 1000 times more efficient, it could bring the cost of a captured ton of CO2 way down. 'It's why CDR can be so exciting,' he says. 'But one problem is that it's so tiny, that so few credits are generated, and they're still incredibly expensive.' He believes the voluntary market can generate significant investment for new ventures across a range of technologies. Factors fueling demand 'The voluntary carbon market has had to weather multiple storms over the years, but it's evolving not collapsing,' says Xavier Pye, an associate at Correggio Consulting Ltd. in Abu Dhabi. He gained insights on the VCM while leading business development at AirCarbon Exchange (ACX), which briefly operated an exchange in Abu Dhabi's financial district. 'Governments are waking up to the opportunity the VCM offers in directing private finance, provided they adopt the right eligibility criteria for credits, and the project methodologies are sound. 'They see the value of the VCM for reducing the cost of mitigation activities and allowing private sector involvement to meet net-0 targets,' he says. He also sees the growing convergence of voluntary and compliance markets potentially fueling new demand for credits. 'Voluntary carbon credits are being increasingly accepted in compliance schemes that provide a ready market for them,' he says. Currently, some 40 percent of emissions trading schemes worldwide allow for some form of offsets, mostly domestic, to be used within their compliance regimes. An example is Singapore, where companies under its carbon tax scheme can meet up to 5 percent of their liabilities with eligible carbon credits. Other factors should fuel rising demand in the VCM. An important one is CORSIA, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, now in Phase 1. It compels airlines to purchase carbon credits in the voluntary market to offset emissions associated with international flights. The standards for these credits are quite high, ensuring their quality, while the market for them is anticipated to expand after 2027 when most countries are expected to join Phase 2. There is also the emerging UN framework for international trade of carbon credits. Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement governs bilateral agreements for carbon transactions between countries. Article 6.4 will go further to provide a centralized UN registry allowing transfers between countries. 'The development of the Paris agreement's Article 6 framework is turbocharging the merge between voluntary and compliance markets,' says Xavier Pye. A good example is Switzerland, which is a leading buyer of carbon offsets under Article 6. The country has entered into agreements with Ghana and Thailand, which have authorized the transfer of cross-border carbon credits. In Ghana, a Swiss foundation is supporting a cookstove project and an electric bike startup. The credits, expected to prevent hundreds of thousands of tons of CO? emissions by 2030, are known as Internationally Transferable Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) under Article 6.2. There are great expectations for this emerging global market. 'It provides an amazing tool for climate finance, because countries will be receiving hard currency in the form of project investment,' says Pye. 'And they'll also earn hard currency through sale of credits, all the while hopefully getting improved environmental outcomes within their national boundaries.' 'It's perhaps one of the best exports a developing country can have,' he says. Get your carbon credits now For firms anticipating the need to acquire carbon credits in the near future, possibly before 2030 when national net-0 targets kick in, Pye offers some advice. For companies not under a compliance scheme, he urges them to purchase credits now while they're relatively inexpensive and building a portfolio from diverse projects. 'Come 2030 there's going to be a lot of companies rushing to buy carbon units, and they will need to continue to purchase offsets for years,' he says. 'Naturally, with the uncertainty of the market, early movers will be rewarded. 'Of course they are taking risk in investing in projects, because the credits may not be eligible under compliance schemes in the future,' he says. 'But having a diverse portfolio will help to abet such risk.' He thinks that as carbon offsets gain more access to expanding compliance markets, the VCM will become a crucial piece in the world's decarbonization toolbox. By Alan Mammoser for More Top Reads From this article on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Scoop
28-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
New Analysis Reveals How Unsuccessful The 'VCM 2.0' Reform Is To-Date
Boston, Massachusetts, 24 June 2025 – Today new research released by Corporate Accountability provides a deep dive into the largest carbon offset projects in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2024, and explores how successful the 'VCM 2.0' reform is to-date at improving the integrity of the voluntary carbon market, as well as whether it is any more likely to reduce global emissions. A carbon offset is an 'allowance' that governments, institutions, and corporations—from fossil fuel majors and airlines to fast-food and tech giants—purchase from environmental projects to supposedly count towards their respective greenhouse gas emissions reductions. Millions of these offset credits, which are linked up through a global carbon market called the VCM, are purchased by these actors annually and counted towards their emissions reductions, often in lieu of other emissions-reducing activities. Despite decades of failing to lead to global emissions reductions, the VCM remains one of the most widely supported forms of climate action, promoted by world governments, industry actors, corporations, and policymakers alike. The analysis underscores the inherently problematic nature of increasing corporate and governmental investment in a scheme that remains fundamentally flawed and which is likely to continue to fail to reduce carbon emissions, all while distracting from meaningful climate action and even likely causing harm. The researchers conducted analysis of data on AlliedOffsets database as well as from industry ratings agencies like BeZero, and revealed that many of the world's largest offset projects in 2024 are unlikely to deliver global emissions reductions. Key findings include: More than 47.7 million problematic offsets credits were retired through 43 of the world's largest offset projects in 2024, meaning they are not likely to lead to the promised emissions reductions. These 43 projects alone account for nearly one-quarter of the VCM. Eighty percent of the offsets assessed in this analysis were problematic. Nearly all (or 93%) of the projects retiring problematic credits are located in the Global South, countries that have historically contributed the least to climate change. This includes five projects that are in Brazil, the upcoming host of the U.N climate talks later this year. Verra hosts the largest number of problematic projects and retired 43.6 million problematic offsets through the assessed projects, suggesting that its updated methodologies and measures taken to assure investors may not rectify the flaws. Yet the approval and promotion of problematic offsets unlikely to lead to emissions reductions spreads much further than Verra. Three other registries were involved in retiring problematic offsets from these projects, and at least 17 verifiers were involved in approving these problematic offsets for VCM trading, to then be purchased by VCM buyers all around the world. Forestry and land use projects had the largest number of problematic projects (23), followed by renewable energy projects (15), household devise projects (4), and chemical processes/industrial manufacturing projects (1). All 37 projects assessed in greater detail had a legitimate risk of having at least one fundamental failing that rendered the projects unlikely to deliver—totaling nearly 40 million credits. These projects either had a legitimate or high risk of non-additionality (23), non-permanence (14), leakage (17), or over-credited (19). The research suggests that despite ongoing reforms, the VCM 2.0 continues to largely fail, enhancing the likelihood of global climate action failure. Any advances through this reform appear to be limited in scope and potential, posing the question of why VCM supporters and investors continue to take on the liability of such great risk, and who is liable for these failures. 'This research serves as an eleventh-hour warning for supporters and investors of carbon offsets and the carbon market,' said Meena Raman, Head of Programs at Third World Network. 'The implications are clear—it's time to shift away from carbon markets, which have failed to deliver emissions reductions for decades, and reinvest into proven solutions that permanently reduce emissions at source and justly address the root causes of climate change. These problematic offsets have no role in the climate action plans of countries or corporations. These pollution allowances have commodified the climate crisis and erased real action. As a result of these sham approaches, millions of lives are now being traded so polluters can profit.' The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has come under increased scrutiny thanks to multiple investigations by experts around the world revealing how these carbon trading schemes appear to give corporations cover to continue polluting while not actually reducing emissions, and even likely spurring significant harm. In 2023, a joint Guardian and Corporate Accountability investigation poked significant holes in carbon trading schemes seen to give permission to countries and corporations to continue burning fossil fuels. According to Rachel Rose Jackson, Director of Climate Research & Policy at Corporate Accountability, 'The latest evidence calls on policymakers as well as investors and supporters of carbon offsets to reckon with why such liability is being taken to continue to worship the voluntary carbon market, and for what real purpose—if it is not likely to lead to emissions reductions? Who is responsible for the repeated failures of the 'checks and balances' that are supposedly plugging the holes of this sinking ship? And why are we trying to solve a global crisis with a scheme that is yet again condemning the planet, not catalyzing the meaningful action urgently needed?' The failures of the VCM are likely much more vast than this research reveals, given that this research only provides one snapshot of problematic projects and fundamental failures that are likely to be more prevalent across the VCM as a whole. This suggests that critical reflections need to happen on the legitimacy of the VCM more broadly. 'The problem isn't just one bad actor; it's baked into the system even among those considered most reputable. And it is not limited to merely one actor or verifier in the carbon market ecosystem,' said Erika Lennon, Senior Attorney, Climate and Energy Program at Center for International Environmental Law. 'With mounting evidence, it's past time for major emitters to stop outsourcing their responsibility to the Global South and commit to a full fossil fuel phaseout – full stop, no loopholes. Clinging to carbon markets not only delays climate progress but also increases legal risks for companies betting on the credibility of these schemes instead of reducing their own emissions. Relying on and promoting offsets to address the climate crisis puts the planet's and all its inhabitants' future at risk and is as smart as relying on the arsonist to fight the fire.'
Korea Herald
25-06-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
GoNetZero™ and AlliedOffsets Partner to Help Businesses Navigate the Voluntary Carbon Market with Confidence
SINGAPORE and LONDON, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GoNetZero™, a global decarbonisation enabler in clean energy procurement and carbon management, announces a new strategic alliance with AlliedOffsets, the world's leading carbon market intelligence provider, to help businesses navigate the voluntary carbon market (VCM) with greater transparency, insight, and confidence. This partnership brings together GoNetZero's curated portfolio of verified carbon credits with AlliedOffsets' analytics platform, which tracks over 34,000 carbon projects globally. By uniting market access with deep data insights, the collaboration aims to help organisations navigate evolving VCM dynamics and make smarter, data-driven decisions that drive meaningful climate impact. "As organisations face growing pressure to back their climate claims with credible action, transparency and data have become essential," said Soon Sze Meng, CEO of GoNetZero. "This partnership will bring together GoNetZero's portfolio of verified carbon credits with AlliedOffsets' market intelligence, helping our clients evaluate carbon offsetting projects with greater clarity and confidence. It's about empowering organisations to make informed choices and drive impact at scale." Through this collaboration, GoNetZero's clients will gain deeper insights into VCM fundamentals – including pricing trends, issuance pipelines, co-benefit preferences, and buyer activity, helping them make better-informed procurement decisions. These insights will also enable clients to benchmark their offsetting and removal strategies against industry peers, enhancing both rigour and credibility in their corporate sustainability efforts. "GoNetZero and AlliedOffsets offer an end-to-end solution for companies that are looking to deliver high-integrity climate impact," said Anton Root, Co-founder at AlliedOffsets. "We're proud to be working with a partner like GoNetZero that shares our vision for a transparent carbon market." This collaboration also supports wider ecosystem engagement by creating more opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, and alignment across the carbon value chain. In the autumn of 2025, GoNetZero and AlliedOffsets will co-host an Industry Day to convene carbon market participants, facilitate dialogue, and accelerate progress. Additionally, the two companies will launch a joint content series designed to guide emissions-intensive sectors on:
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GoNetZero™ and AlliedOffsets Partner to Help Businesses Navigate the Voluntary Carbon Market with Confidence
SINGAPORE and LONDON, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- GoNetZero™, a global decarbonisation enabler in clean energy procurement and carbon management, announces a new strategic alliance with AlliedOffsets, the world's leading carbon market intelligence provider, to help businesses navigate the voluntary carbon market (VCM) with greater transparency, insight, and confidence. This partnership brings together GoNetZero's curated portfolio of verified carbon credits with AlliedOffsets' analytics platform, which tracks over 34,000 carbon projects globally. By uniting market access with deep data insights, the collaboration aims to help organisations navigate evolving VCM dynamics and make smarter, data-driven decisions that drive meaningful climate impact. "As organisations face growing pressure to back their climate claims with credible action, transparency and data have become essential," said Soon Sze Meng, CEO of GoNetZero. "This partnership will bring together GoNetZero's portfolio of verified carbon credits with AlliedOffsets' market intelligence, helping our clients evaluate carbon offsetting projects with greater clarity and confidence. It's about empowering organisations to make informed choices and drive impact at scale." Through this collaboration, GoNetZero's clients will gain deeper insights into VCM fundamentals – including pricing trends, issuance pipelines, co-benefit preferences, and buyer activity, helping them make better-informed procurement decisions. These insights will also enable clients to benchmark their offsetting and removal strategies against industry peers, enhancing both rigour and credibility in their corporate sustainability efforts. "GoNetZero and AlliedOffsets offer an end-to-end solution for companies that are looking to deliver high-integrity climate impact," said Anton Root, Co-founder at AlliedOffsets. "We're proud to be working with a partner like GoNetZero that shares our vision for a transparent carbon market." This collaboration also supports wider ecosystem engagement by creating more opportunities for dialogue, knowledge sharing, and alignment across the carbon value chain. In the autumn of 2025, GoNetZero and AlliedOffsets will co-host an Industry Day to convene carbon market participants, facilitate dialogue, and accelerate progress. Additionally, the two companies will launch a joint content series designed to guide emissions-intensive sectors on: Sector-specific trends across energy and technology/ telecoms. How to align carbon offsetting strategies with broader ESG goals, regulatory developments, and stakeholder expectations. How to identify high-integrity credits aligned with tightening VCM standards. For more information, visit and Media contact: press@ / Commercial contact: connect@ / hello@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE GoNetZero™ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
