In voluntary carbon markets, buyers (like big companies with emissions) voluntarily purchase and trade in offsets generated from emissions reduction or removal projects elsewhere. And in early 2023 momentum was building for them, but that soon collapsed as evidence of greenwashing grew: forestry programs were significantly overestimating their value. Allegra Dawes at CSIS lays out the background before explaining that systems must be put in place … [Read more...]
Voluntary Carbon Markets in turmoil: what must be done to make carbon offsetting work?
Headlines like “Revealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis shows” tell of the big problems faced by Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM). VCMs are markets for buying, selling, and investing in carbon credits tied to avoided, reduced, or removed greenhouse gas emissions. But they are struggling to define, measure, verify, and value carbon credits in an efficient, transparent, and standardised … [Read more...]
Carbon Taxes have a multiplier effect on clean energy policies
President Biden’s Build Back Better package has already had to be cut back drastically. The climate part of the package is to halve the U.S.’s greenhouse gas pollution from its peak by 2030. Given the limitations on what Biden can do, will tax credits alone (favouring low-carbon solutions) achieve the target, asks Meredith Fowlie at the Energy Institute at Haas. She reviews papers that say it almost certainly won’t. However, the addition of a … [Read more...]
Can Carbon Offset loopholes be fixed with better evaluation and rules?
Carbon offset programmes rightly get a lot of criticism. There’s plenty of evidence of offsets not delivering all the GHG emissions reductions they are credited for. Though still on the international agenda, should they be ditched? Or can they be improved with better analysis and evaluation, and making that a pre-condition for creating carbon offset credits, asks Meredith Fowlie at the Energy Institute at Haas. She starts by looking at those … [Read more...]