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 […]
We are here introducing a new forum for discussing issues associated with the nature-based carbon market with a particular focus on the integrity of carbon offsets. The forum will be edited and quality-controlled by fellow experts and fills a gap where practitioners, stakeholders and interested parties can learn and debate what ensures integrity in the […]
What does demand look like for the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in 2026? To get an early read, Ecosystem Marketplace surveyed a sample of carbon project developers and brokers in late 2025 about how buyer behavior, pricing trends, and procurement activity compare to where the market was six months ago. Here are some highlights of […]
An abridged version of this piece first appeared in Forest Trends’ 25-year anniversary Impact Report. When Forest Trends started tracking the voluntary carbon market (VCM) in the mid-2000s, the landscape had already been shaped by nearly two decades of experimentation. Conservation organizations pioneered carbon finance in the late 1980s, years before any global government action […]
