ESG & Investing
Inside the Controversy That's Divided the Carbon Offsets Market
Science Based Targets initiative, the world’s main verifier of corporate climate targets, faced pressure to relax their carbon offset standards.
A forest in Gabon, which has looked to sell carbon offsets.
Photographer: Guillem Sartorio/BloombergWhen the biggest funders and promoters of the $2 billion carbon offsets market assembled in London last month, the gathering was billed as a series of technical discussions on subjects such as emissions accounting.
But, at least to some attendees, there also appeared to be another motive: to make a case for why the Science Based Targets initiative, the biggest and most-respected verifier of corporate climate targets, is the primary impediment to the growth of a market that advocates deem critical in the fight against climate change.