This spring the North American Carbon World (NACW) event celebrated its 25th anniversary, a small milestone in the evolution of carbon markets. In honor of the celebration, Katherine Hamilton, Ecosystem Marketplace Advisory Board member and co-author of Voluntary Carbon Markets: A Business Guide sat down with Alexia Kelly, market veteran and Managing Director of the […]

Scroll through carbon market commentary on LinkedIn and a pattern emerges quickly. On one side: nature-based solutions are irreplaceable, available now, and essential at scale. On the other: they are temporary, risky, and a distraction from the engineered removals that will actually get us to net zero. Both camps are confident. Both are missing the […]

The first quarter of Conversations on Integrity offers a clear snapshot of our current position on greenhouse gas accounting, safeguards, and financing for nature-based carbon. I read the three pieces with optimism. While there is still room for improvement, the overall trajectory reflects strengthening integrity and a clearer understanding of what is required—progress that would have been […]

Voluntary carbon markets have spent years refining supply-side and demand-side integrity. Both are essential – but neither guarantees that projects can be built, survive shocks, or scale.  What’s missing is financing integrity: whether capital is structured to let high integrity projects happen, especially for smaller or community-led developers. Even best methodologies and the most committed […]

When integrity is discussed in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), it is still largely defined by carbon metrics. Even the controversies that have drawn the most scrutiny — from over-crediting to overstated climate claims — are typically framed in terms of carbon performance. Ask what makes a “high-quality” carbon credit, and you will likely hear […]

Nature-based carbon projects have operated for more than 25 years. Early assumptions that greenhouse gas accounting would be simple have proven wrong. What has occurred instead is a steady evolution of integrity, as accounting weaknesses have been identified and progressively addressed. The problem is not measuring carbon stocks… There is a persistent misconception that integrity […]

I am proud to be the first editor of Conversations on Integrity in Nature-based Carbon for the initial quarter. Our aim in this first quarter is to take a snapshot of where nature-based greenhouse gas crediting stands and a high-level overview of where we have come from. The quarter forms an introduction to the series […]