Carbon offsets are produced and sold under the international climate change regime (the United Nations Kyoto Protocol) and also within an... » More

Carbon offsets are produced and sold under the international climate change

regime (the United Nations Kyoto Protocol) and also within an expanding

voluntary offset market in which companies and individuals can voluntarily opt to

compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions. The volume of carbon produced

and consumed within compliance and voluntary markets has grown dramatically

in the last 5 years, raising a number of governance challenges. This Focus Article

gives an overview of the governance of the compliance and voluntary carbon offset

markets, and considers the implications of their different governance structures

for addressing climate change. It assesses recent changes in the governance of the

voluntary carbon offset market in response to concerns about the credibility and

robustness of voluntary carbon offsets. Several voluntary offset standards were

launched in 2007–2009, including the Voluntary Carbon Standard and the Gold

Standard. National governments have also taken regulatory action on voluntary

offsets, notably the UK government who took the controversial decision in early

2009 to endorse only compliance carbon offsets for use in the UK voluntarymarket.

The UK government’s attempt to regulate the voluntary offset market provides a

useful case through which to explore some of the inherent tensions in effectively

governing the carbon offset market.

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