In early 2024, Mongabay published a five-part series on the voluntary carbon market that drew on more than a year of reporting examining the overall landscape and individual projects on three continents. The trade in carbon credits is a contentious strategy that aims to limit climate change and deforestation, and some see it as a valuable tool. In contrast, others call it a distraction that causes more problems than it solves. Criticism surged in 2023. Media reports and scientific analyses called into question not just whether the purchase of carbon credits translated into the avoidance of emissions that would have resulted from the destruction or degradation of forests. Investigations asked whether carbon credit projects were actively causing harm, particularly to forest-dependent communities and Indigenous peoples, whose stewardship is critical to the health of many ecosystems. Benefits appeared to flow disproportionately to entities between the projects on the ground and the buyers of credits, known as intermediaries. As 2024 comes to an end, the voluntary market has continued to evolve, with several relevant decisions for its future taken at the U.N. climate conference, COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. This year-end overview highlights the critical hurdles and a glimpse of the market’s future. A woman collects fruits from her community forest in eastern Cambodia. Image by John Cannon/Mongabay. ‘Term’-oil To understand what’s going on with the carbon market, it’s important to know the terms, vocabulary and organizations involved. For starters, a carbon credit is different from a carbon offset. A carbon credit represents…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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