Back to the Future: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2011

This report primarily relates to the US market but the UK should note the volume of the transactions traded in 2010 -  131 MtCO2e (or mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent).  This is way ahead of anything happening elsewhere and is something we must take note of.  Links to the publications are available from the website


The report quotes that 'the future was in the forests' but this is to miss the point that in terms of carbon storage peatland is a much better, longer-lived store.  The public awareness of forestry as the answer to the carbon sequestration and storage problem is a credit to the forest industry, but I believe that the industry's pre-eminent position could look very shaky if the argument for peat is put properly.


The short Executive Summary of the main report comments on the emergence of registries as a way to provide credibility to voluntary agreements and also reports on an apparent shift away from the compliance market in favour of the voluntary market.  Is this a view of the future that we ought to be gearing up for in UK?