A panel of scientific experts has released a final report outlining how carbon credits generated from tropical forest conservation could be used under California's cap-and-trade system while minimizing risks to…
Rimba Raya, the world's largest REDD+ project, has finally been approved by the Indonesian government and verified under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), a leading certification standard for carbon credits.…
The market for carbon credits generated from projects that reduce deforestation and forest degradation — a climate change mitigation approach known as REDD+ — dipped eight percent in 2012 according…
As the public comment period for California's cap-and-trade program draws to a close, an alliance of environmental activists have stepped up a heated campaign to keep carbon credits generated by…
Low carbon prices may spur deforestation in New Zealand according to a survey by a researcher at Canterbury University. As reported last week by The New Zealand Herald, a collapse…
Carbon credits generated by forest conservation activities in tropical countries could play a role in California's cap-and-trade program, helping mitigate climate change and providing benefits to local communities, said a…
The problems of Good Derivatives begin with the title: the book does not discuss derivatives at length, nor is there a coherent thesis proposing that they are "good." Equally misleading…
Rainforest in Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler The World Bank's forest carbon fund got a $180 million injection from Finland, Germany and Norway, reports Point Carbon. The bank's Forest…
This is a response from Greenpeace to Dr. Daniel Nepstad's critique of Greenpeace's recent report on a carbon finance program being advanced by California and other subnational entities. His op-ed…
California's forest conservation-based carbon offsets in its climate change legislation may not lead to net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and could exacerbate social conflict in places like southern Mexico,…
Sumatran elephant in South Sumatra, Indonesia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler The voluntary carbon offset market reached a three-year high in 2011, according to the State of the Voluntary Carbon…
Observations of planet Earth from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on July 11, 2005. Photo by: NASA. Seventeen top scientists and four acclaimed conservation organizations have called for radical…
An apparent carbon deal between an Irish carbon trading company and an indigenous tribe that sparked outrage in Brazil is "invalid" according to the president of FUNAI, Brazil's indigenous affairs…
Male lion in the Okavango Delta. © National Geographic Entertainment. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Now that California's carbon market has arrived, an Australian-based company that specializes in forest carbon…
A program proposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation made mixed progress during climate talks in Durban. Significant questions remain about financing and safeguards to protect against…
Jonas Meckling, PhD., writes the first critical analysis demonstrating how various types of not-for-profit, governmental and for-profit coalitions over the past couple of decades have led to the development of…
Bucking long-stalled efforts in the US to combat global climate change, California has approved final rules for a cap-and-trade program set to go into effect in 2013. The program will…
An aerial view of an Amazon tributary in Peru, one of the top countries for projects in the young forest carbon market. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Investors funneled $178…
Australia's parliament passed the world's first national carbon trading scheme for credits generated from farming and forestry, reports Reuters. The program, dubbed the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI), allows farmers to…
Tribes in Washington state will participate in a pilot project to test the feasibility of developing forest carbon projects on tribal lands, reports EcoAnalytics, a carbon advisory firm involved in…
The forest organization, FERN, has pulled its support from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), reports FSC-Watch. FERN has quit the increasingly troubled organization due to FSC pursuing carbon credits through…
The voluntary carbon market posted a 34 percent gain in 2010, trading a record 131 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtC02e). While the US accounted for the majority of…
PUMA, the sporting goods brand, and its parent company PPR will offset their 2010 carbon dioxide emissions by purchasing carbon credits generated through conservation of wildlife habitat in Kenya. The…
Rainforest in West Kalimantan, Indonesia Avoided Deforestation Partners, a forest conservation group, has coordinated the development of an "open source" forest carbon accounting methodology that could help speed projects aiming…
The global carbon markets began quietly in the late 1980s as part of a voluntary effort to save rainforests, but these small, voluntary efforts were quickly eclipsed – and often…
Carbon trading promotes good behavior by creating a standardized currency representing a verifiable environmental benefit. Payments for watershed services do the same for cutbacks in water pollution, albeit on a…
Carbon finance can help rural Africans establish more sustainable ways of doing business, and several efforts are underway to build carbon exchanges that can help project developers identify prices and…
A carbon conservation project in Kenya has become the first to win validation for REDD credits under the Voluntary Carbon Standard. The U.S.-based Wildlife Works said today the Voluntary Carbon…
Cyberthieves who hacked the Czech carbon registry on Tuesday had intimate knowledge of different registries. They acted just days before a key security upgrade would have made the heist impossible,…
The European Union temporarily shut down its carbon market after a security breach, reports Point Carbon. The European Commission suspended most of its Emissions Trading Scheme following the disclosure of…
