Carbon market news

Carbon credit rule-makers must engage Indigenous People (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Indigenous people protect the forests but the organisation writing up a rule-book for high-quality carbon offsets has not adequately consulted them

• Voluntary market

Revealed: How Shell cashed in on dubious carbon offsets from Chinese rice paddies (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Shell's rice farming offset projects are under review. Climate Home found them riddled with accounting loopholes and questionable integrity claims.

• China
• Voluntary market

Greenwash alert as Cop27 draft allows double claiming of carbon credits (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Companies and countries could take credit for the same tonne of CO2 cut under rules being negotiated in Sharm el-Sheikh

John Kerry’s offsets plan sets early test for UN net zero standards (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

The US special envoy wants to use carbon credits to speed up the clean energy transition - but experts are sceptical the scheme can meet best practice.

World Bank backs carbon credit blockchain registry to attract crypto investors (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

The World Bank wants to direct the NFT craze towards projects that cut emissions and improve the transparency of carbon offset markets

• Voluntary market

Chinese companies seek global carbon market for green hydrogen (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

A project that supplied green hydrogen for buses at the Winter Olympics could be the first of its kind to sell carbon credits through the Clean Development Mechanism

• China

Make polluters pay for climate adaptation, voluntary carbon market body proposes (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

An adaptation levy on carbon credits could raise up to $2.5bn a year by 2030, providing more predictable support for climate vulnerable countries

• Voluntary market

Data exclusive: The ‘junk’ carbon offsets revived by the Glasgow Pact (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Analysis for Climate Home identifies hundreds of problematic projects that could be used to greenwash national and corporate climate plans

• Voluntary market

Australian carbon traders defend troubled offset market against whistleblower claims (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Policy upheaval and stark criticism of the quality of carbon offsets from a former official have thrown Australia's ability to deliver on carbon targets into doubt

• Asia-Pacific
• Voluntary market

Carney, Kyte oversee carbon offset rules to address greenwashing concerns (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

Two initiatives will release standards for the voluntary carbon market this year, while campaigners denounce offsetting as a "scam" that delays real climate action

• Voluntary market
• Policy and regulation

‘Misleading’ Polish billboards blame EU climate policy for electricity costs (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

State-owned utilities are using rising energy costs to attack the EU emissions trading system, stoking tensions between Warsaw and Brussels

• EU ETS

Crypto bubble: The hype machine behind a $70,000 carbon credit (opens Climate Home News in a new tab)

UK-based cryptocurrency venture Save Planet Earth has convinced investors it can make them rich and fix the climate, but its tree-planting vision is a long way from reality