Corporations that give money to climate-related projects as a way of offsetting their own emissions are increasingly avoiding those considered unlikely to cut greenhouse gas pollution, experts said Tuesday.
The increasing scrutiny of projects funded through the voluntary carbon market is making corporations wary of financing projects considered low quality because they may not actually reduce planet-warming pollution, market analysts said at a webinar held by the Environmental Defense Fund.
At the same time, corporations and other polluters are increasingly interested in funding climate projects that have been verified by a United Kingdom nonprofit that scrutinizes projects that rely on corporate funding provided through the voluntary carbon market.
“You will see more and more [of] a differentiation in price between those [projects] that meet our standards and those that don’t,” said Pedro Martins Barata, EDF’s associate vice president for carbon markets and private sector decarbonization.
