The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), an initiative aim to grow the $2 billion market for carbon offsets, outlined criteria for new voluntary standards on July 27. They hope to issue labelled credits by the end of the year to bring transparency to the unregulated marketplace.
Demand for carbon offsets, which are credits for emissions-reducing activity that can be generated through projects such as tree planting, is predicted to grow as firms with net zero goals buy these offsets to cancel out emissions elsewhere.
But the market is unregulated, with many different standards and approaches, making it difficult for companies to assess which credits they should use.
