COMMENT: Putting China’s carbon market in perspective
China’s recently launched national emissions trading system (ETS) has been both lauded and loathed by pundits. Some see it as hugely important, while others see it as little more than virtue signalling. The reality is somewhere in the middle, writes TransitionZero’s Matthew Gray.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Climate impact claims to crowd in private sector finance
There is growing interest in uses of the carbon market that do not rely on unique claims, and expanding the use of the voluntary carbon market to accommodate new claims can crowd in even more investment without being limited to a narrowing pool of options available for offsetting, writes Sarah Leugers of Gold Standard.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Voluntary carbon markets – broken more than breakthrough
The voluntary carbon market is supposed to be saving the world. Instead many carbon credit retailers are lining their pockets, warns market veteran and Redshaw Advisors founder Louis Redshaw.
Read MoreECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE – Shades of REDD+: Corresponding Adjustments, Equity, and Climate Justice
The increasing commoditization of carbon markets makes us forget that behind these board room discussions, there is a real-world problem out there with the plight of real people at stake. While being an invention of the global north, carbon markets came with a great promise for us here in the South. The idea of backing voluntary claims with corresponding adjustments puts this promise at grave risk, writes Sandeep Roy Choudhury – Co-Founder of VNV Advisory Services, Co-Chair of the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA), and Director at the Carbon Initiative Forum.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Offsetting 2.0 – how ratings can help avoid a race to the bottom
In order to avoid fungibility becoming a race to the bottom, the voluntary carbon market needs tools that recognise the variation in carbon returns and enables the creation of products that capture this variation, according to Sebastien Cross of BeZero Carbon.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Let’s remove ONLY what we can’t avoid
While carbon removals will play a role in mitigating climate change, we cannot afford to take our focus away from the urgent objective of avoiding emitting in the first place, write Sarah Leugers and Owen Hewlett of Gold Standard.
Read MoreECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE – Shades of REDD+: ART, JNR or GCF… Which is Best for Countries?
Carbon finance is growing and countries are faced with an array of choices—including whether to pursue projects, nesting or jurisdictional REDD+, which standards to use in doing so, and what finance opportunity to pursue. The landscape can be a confusing array of options. In this contribution to the Shades of REDD+ series, targeted for forest countries, we try to demystify three opportunities to capture finance for jurisdictional REDD+ performance.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Assessing co-benefits in the voluntary carbon market
The private sector Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets (TSVCM) has collectively arrived at a solution for what ‘co-benefits’ should count as part of a carbon credit. It believes this will help maintain quality in the market, increase transparency and also create a mechanism to develop an appropriate pricing benchmark for these ‘co-benefits’, according to Chris Leeds of Standard Chartered.
Read MoreECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE – Claims+Credibility: Embracing Diversification to Scale Carbon Markets
If total greenhouse gas emissions in new or updated country plans offer a mere 0.5% reduction, greater ambition is needed from governments to fill this gap. Can a robust voluntary carbon market play an important role in this context?
Read MoreCOMMENT: Climate action claims are the new frontier for robust carbon accounting
Instruments to reduce emissions need to be clearly ranked for their environmental integrity and associated with robust claims that provide an accurate representation of the impacts achieved, argues Marion Verles of SustainCERT, adding that having civil society formulate a consensus on what can and can’t be done with offsets would go a long way in reassuring corporates and citizens that the market is trustworthy.
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