The voluntary carbon market (VCM) now has a real worth of $2 billion, with prices of up to 170 forms of carbon credits on the rise, according to a recent Ecosystem Marketplace (EM) report.
EM, an initiative of non-profit organization Forest Trends, has been tracking and reporting on the VCM's condition since 2006.
EM’s most recent report shows that the VCM is currently close to $2 billion. Additionally, about 500 million carbon credits were traded in the same period, a 66% increase over the previous EM report. Likewise, global prices increase by 60% in 2021 ($4.0) than in 2020 ($2.5).
The outlook for voluntary carbon markets looks promising as more interests and investments poured into carbon projects. Moreover, global trend of pursuing sustainability and climate goals spurs record high demand.
Global carbon credit prices also saw rising momentum. The annual global average price per ton rose from $2.5 in 2020 to $4.0 in 2021, up 60% since 2013.
Among the eight categories of carbon credits, prices for projects with non-carbon benefits, such as local community support and biodiversity conservation, are higher. Particularly, prices for projects under Gold Standard (one of the main carbon standards) increased by 35% between 2020 ($3.7) and 2021 ($5.0).
The CCB (Climate, Community & Biodiversity) Standards, a supplement to Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) carbon credits and the most widely used co-benefits certification standard today, has also seen an increase of 277% in amount.
Another remarkable finding from EM is that prices for carbon credits that were cross-referenced with carbon standards' registries are higher than those that were not. Cross-referencing involves providing specific information of the projects for the credits like project name or ID.
The report also suggests that VCM prefers to trade carbon credits via bilateral deals between project developers and end buyers, which indicates that there are more and more chances for project developers to respond to calls for bids from businesses.
