Background research

Simple overview of differences of voluntary and mandatory carbon markest

Verra history on voluntary carbon market

Demand/supply dynamic and can be covered in ABC: where does the carbon tonne price come from?

History? Has been around since mid 90s but really started to gain momentum from 2005 onwards (more detailed overview of history of voluntary carbon market here). Leaving out for now to avoid it getting too long

Introducing the Carbon Market Age

Title ideas

ABC: What is the voluntary carbon market? Why does it matter for landowners and foresters?

Structure

First draft

What are carbon markets?

Before we dive into voluntary carbon markets, it’s important to note that there are two types of carbon markets:

  1. Voluntary carbon markets
  2. Compliance (or mandatory) carbon markets

Voluntary carbon market gives individuals or organisations an opportunity to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits. Compliance markets are regulated carbon trading systems that have nationally, regionally or internationally determined rules, and participants from heavy polluting industries (think steelworks or car manufacturers) The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is an example of a compliance market.

<aside> 💡 In terms of volume, compliance markets are bigger than voluntary markets. The total value of compliance markets adds up to around 760 billion EUR, compared to 2 billion EUR for voluntary markets.

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