Understanding Voluntary Carbon Markets

This is the first part of a series to help professional accountants, investors, regulators and policymakers enhance their understanding of carbon markets as a potentially important part of the infrastructure needed to support climate action.

This first report provides a general overview of VCMs, the process for generating a carbon credit within a VCM and considerations for purchasing carbon credits, including key attributes that may contribute to the quality of a credit. Future instalments will dive deeper into the use of carbon credits internationally, the accounting, verification and disclosure requirements, and will explore the roles of professional accountants in enhancing the integrity of VCMs.