In a bid to bolster confidence in the carbon offset market, the United States will soon introduce guidelines for both government and private sector use of carbon offsets, aiming to ensure that credits accurately reflect emissions cuts. John Podesta, the top U.S. climate diplomat, announced the forthcoming guidelines, highlighting their importance in the global effort to limit warming to below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Carbon markets are a critical tool… but carbon markets have been the subject of intense criticism and missteps,” Podesta said during an event at the State Department focused on building high-integrity carbon markets. He emphasized that carbon credits must “represent real, additional, permanent emissions reductions” and that emissions accounting should occur at the sectoral level.
The guidelines will also stress that companies using carbon credits should not use them as a substitute for direct emissions reduction efforts. The move comes amid a debate within the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) about the use of offsetting, with the initiative's plan to allow supply chain emissions to be offset facing criticism.
Podesta and John Kerry, the former Secretary of State who led the launch of the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA), praised SBTi's decision to incorporate carbon offsets into their standards. The ETA, a program created in 2022 to generate private finance for clean energy transitions in developing countries, will now be overseen by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), with Kerry chairing the advisory group.
“If we do not mobilize the private sector, we do not win this (climate) battle,” Kerry said, emphasizing the need for high-quality carbon markets to drive action.
