Save for later Print Download Share LinkedIn Twitter The voluntary carbon market is a fast growing beast, and that rapid growth has brought scrutiny that has recently grown much worse. Worth some $2 billion in 2021, industry watchers forecast the sector could balloon up to $40 billion by 2030. Yet a recent expose in the Guardian newspaper cites scientific studies that claim up to 95% of carbon avoidance projects verified by leading voluntary carbon credit certification provider Verra do not offer real emissions reductions, especially those associated with deforestation projects. This is a potentially big problem and public relations nightmare for European oil majors that plan to rely heavily on the voluntary carbon markets to meet their scope 1-3 emission targets. "I think that we need urgently to regulate the voluntary carbon markets to generate impactful credits rather than facilitating greenwashing," Roberta Boscolo, lead climate and energy analyst at the World Meteorological Organization, tells Energy Intelligence.
