RELEASE: New open-access resource shores up carbon market integrity by putting market data in the hands of communities, small enterprise, and the public

19 September 2024: Released just in time for New York Climate Week, a Global Carbon Markets Hub allows users to explore the world’s largest database of voluntary carbon markets transactions, developed by Ecosystem Marketplace, an initiative of the nonprofit Forest Trends. 

“The new Hub is an attempt to improve equitable access to market information, so the VCM is truly delivering benefits for climate and sustainable development,” says Charlotte Barber, Associate Director of Ecosystem Marketplace. 

The voluntary carbon market (VCM) has grown dramatically in the last five years, accompanied by a flood of private investment in the space. At the same time, the VCM has attracted scrutiny over concerns about the potential for greenwashing, and the integrity of project developers’ claims, especially so-called “carbon cowboys” taking advantage of communities in the Global South by taking the lion’s share of carbon credit revenues, with few benefits going to communities themselves.  

“Despite recent progress made by initiatives like the ICVCM, the VCM is still a challenging space to understand and navigate for community-based projects, small project developers, and people who care about climate change,” Barber says. “Market analysis is often only available to investors or others who can pay for it.” 

“For years, EM has provided transparent, high-quality, and reliable data, providing visibility into fundamental market issues for project developers’ decision making and growth,” says María Alejandra Cantuarias, Head of Carbon Business at Bosques Amazónicos (BAM).  

“It is crucial – especially nowadays – to disseminate substantiated and trustworthy data regarding the carbon market to raise awareness of the value and potential (and urgency!) of nature-based solutions development to fight climate change.” 

“For nearly two decades, EM has been dedicated to increasing transparency and access to information, in a world where much of it is behind paywalls, on the carbon markets. This level of transparency is an important and often overlooked piece to market integrity. The hub is a major step in deepening the information available to the marketplace,” says Kate Hamilton, former Managing Director of EM. 

Key Features of the Hub: 

• New, interactive data visualizations that track and analyze transaction data from 200+ market participants, such as carbon project developers and resellers of carbon credits, representing carbon credit projects from over 100 countries. Visualizations span multiple years, providing big-picture insight into the voluntary carbon market over time.  

• Project data on over 20,000 carbon projects, including methodology, location, issuances, retirements, SDG certification, and more. 

• Key information on how EM filters and categorizes project data. 

“EM has been committed to improving transparency through annual reports, journalism, events, and other resources. The new Carbon Hub is an exciting new offering that allows users to explore the latest EM data in an interactive format,” says Barber. 

“Investing in nature is one of the most effective climate strategies we have,” says Michael Jenkins, Founding President and CEO of Forest Trends. “Accessible and equitable information-sharing is key to unlocking the power of carbon finance to conserve our forests and ecosystems and driving benefits to communities on the ground who are stewarding this critical work.” 

Access the Global Carbon Markets Hub here (https://hub.ecosystemmarketplace.com) 

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Media Contact: Cheyenne Coxon | [email protected] | +1 202 446-1980

Ecosystem Marketplace is an initiative of the non-profit organization Forest Trends, and a leading global source of information on environmental finance, markets, and payments for ecosystem services. For nearly two decades, EM has run the world’s first and only globally recognized and standardized reporting and transparency initiative for carbon market credit pricing data, news, and insights. EM is also a leading convener in the sector, bringing together experts to provide technical insights that cover emerging policy and key trends across environmental markets for decisionmakers, policymakers, market actors, and observers.