Businesses need help finding credible climate projects within global carbon markets that have been criticized for offering investments that often fail to reduce planet-warming pollution.
A report by the Voluntary Carbon Market Initiative, a nonprofit that promotes the use of such markets, found that companies see the markets as a “critical element of meeting their climate and sustainability goals.” But “clear, aligned and stable rules” are needed to guide businesses about how to select projects that provide them with carbon credits, to avoid public scrutiny that could come with problematic projects that fail to lower emissions.
The voluntary carbon market offers thousands of projects, such as forest protection or replacing polluting cook stoves, to corporations that buy carbon credits to help them meet their climate goals. Each credit represents one ton of emissions.
Businesses said they’re increasingly hearing from chief financial officers that the climate investments should provide a financial return, according to the report. The purchases were also described by businesses as a way to mitigate climate risk and for gaining a competitive advantage. Ideally, they want projects that have been endorsed by a government, a special interest group, or a scientific body.