The U.S. government could intervene to improve the credibility of a major global carbon market system, but experts disagree on whether it’s necessary and if more resources and authority are needed, a new federal oversight report says.
A Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday analyzed the voluntary carbon market, a series of polluter-funded projects around the world that are supposed to address climate change but are of widely varying quality.
The U.S. government provides minimal oversight and guidance, raising questions about whether agencies could and should become more involved.
The unregulated voluntary market links developers of climate change related projects such as forest preservation with corporations that fund the projects to get credit for offsetting their own emissions. Each carbon credit equals one ton of greenhouse gas emissions that has been averted or absorbed.
