Verified Carbon Removals Could Restore Trust In Carbon Credits
- Media Manager
- Jan 26, 2024
- 1 min read
Forbes
Written By: Juergen Eckhardt
Published: January 25th, 2024
Over the past year, it has become increasingly apparent that the carbon credits market needs a major overhaul.
Just last month, a new carbon finance platform called the Energy Transition Accelerator was unveiled at COP28. Backed by the U.S. Department of State, the Bezos Earth Fund and The Rockefeller Foundation, the official announcement stated an aim of uniting governments and private stakeholders to deliver faster, deeper greenhouse gas reductions through ‘high integrity carbon credits.’
Yet for such initiatives to succeed, there is a need for the market to find ways of rebuilding trust, which has previously been eroded by accusations of fraud and greenwashing, particularly relating to carbon offsets purchased by major corporations.
Last August, a study in the journal Science, conducted by an international team of scientists and economists, concluded that the majority of carbon offset schemes significantly overestimate how much deforestation they are preventing. Most notably, out of a potential 89 million credits, the study concluded that just 5.4 million were actually linked to additional carbon reductions through tree conservation.
