The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is a market in which individuals, corporations and project developers purchase and sell carbon credits on a voluntary basis. These credits represent avoidance, removals or reductions of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The VCM allows entities to offset unavoidable emissions by purchasing credits that represent projects which remove or reduce greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The VCM is growing rapidly, reaching over 608 million tons of CO2e emissions reductions or removals by 2019, the equivalent of taking more than 131 million cars off the road. The VCM was formed with the aim of driving finance to activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and has evolved into a robust and effective means to tackle climate change by driving resources to projects which deliver independently verified and additional emissions reductions on a global scale.
A carbon credit is a tradable unit that represents one ton of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. When an entity claims the environmental benefit of removing, reducing or avoiding a ton of CO2 equivalent GHG, the credit is retired on the registry that issued the credit and will no longer be tradeable. Each credit is issued from a specific project and certified by carbon standards.
Carbon credits are generated from projects around the world that pull greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere or keep emissions from being released. Each time an issuing registry verifies that a project has reduced, avoided or destroyed one metric tonne of GHG, one carbon credit is created.
A carbon credit project is an environmental project, or set of deliberate activities, that reduces emissions in some way. In order to issue carbon credits, a project must prove it will reduce emissions. These projects must submit to rigorous auditing by regulatory bodies to ensure they are doing everything they claim.
The most common project types include forestry and conservation, renewable energy, community projects, and waste/landfill management.
Purchasing a carbon credit enables individuals, corporations and other entities to compensate for or neutralize emissions that have not yet been eliminated by financing projects that reduce emissions, avoid emissions, or remove greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. A robust and large VCM increases the flow of capital to these projects, playing a critical role in reaching international net zero goals.
Offsets are necessary to neutralize residual emissions that cannot be eliminated through reductions. Credits that have undergone thorough vetting and carbon integrity assessments provide real climate mitigation benefits. These standards mean a project is certified to be additional, meaning that the removal or emissions reductions would not have happened without the investment. Offsets are verified and monitored through clearly defined protocols. Offsets should be used in conjunction with the setting and implementation of science-based internal reduction targets.
https://verra.org/voluntary-carbon-markets/
https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/carbon-offsets
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/11/carbon-offsetting-rainforest-sylvera/
