The Voluntary Carbon Market and VER Projects (Verified Emission Reduction)
Since the Paris Agreement, “carbon neutrality” has become, over time, an absolute imperative for nations, citizens and businesses.
Carbon neutrality is based on two pillars :
-« Decarbonization » : i.e. the maximum reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
- « Compensation » for irreducible emissions, by sequestration or reduction of emissions potentially induced by the effect of economic activity.
The compensation is, in fact, the emission of carbon credits within the framework of the Voluntary Carbon Market, the MCV.
The VMC derives from the civil society initiative but has been structured in its current configuration by the practice of the carbon projects of the Kyoto Protocol.
- In 1989, the American company AES Corp decided to finance an agro-forestry project in Guatemala to offset the emissions from its new power plant in Connecticut. The idea of voluntary offsetting was born.
- The Kyoto Protocol takes up the idea of a carbon sequestration or avoidance project by giving it rules: it is the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Thus, unlike so-called “Cap and Trade” regulated markets, the MCV is based on the development of Projects. To a certain extent, the two markets can communicate (Linking).
MVC tripled in volume and value last year, reaching 1 billion dollars.
It will experience, in the years to come, an exponential growth, some experts put forward the figure of fifty billion US dollars.