By Susanna Twidale
LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - A private sector task force on
Wednesday unveiled plans to turn the small voluntary carbon
offset market into a global standard that could direct billions
of dollars from companies aiming to meet net zero targets into
projects to cut emissions.
Multinational companies, such as e-commerce giant Amazon
and oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and BP
have set net zero emission goals but will need to buy or
generate carbon credits to offset the emissions they cannot cut
from their operations.
“The question for us is how do we get the cash out of the
hands of those companies that are making net zero commitments...
into the hands of people that can actually reduce or remove
carbon from the environment,” Bill Winters CEO of Standard
Chartered and chair of the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon
Markets told Reuters.
He was speaking as the body on Wednesday launched its
blueprint for scaling up the market at a virtual meeting of the
World Economic Forum.
Currently offsets, generated through emission reductions
such as planting trees or switching to less polluting fuels,
trade in a voluntary market, often on a project-by-project
basis.
This could be scaled up to a market worth $5-$50 billion by
2030, depending on the prices achieved, by creating more
transparent, liquid and standardised contracts, the report said.
"To have a pricing benchmark will add real legitimacy to the
market," Winters said.
The task force plans to launch a governance body to set the
contract standards that Winters said could comprise
representatives from non-governmental organisations, large
emitters and investors.
Standardised spot and futures contracts, meeting the core
carbon standards set, should be traded on exchanges with the
market hopefully launched within a year, Winters said.
Greenpeace earlier on Wednesday said the plans could hand
oil majors and airlines an excuse to pollute for longer and
jeopardise international climate goals.
The task force has more than 50 members including buyers and
sellers of carbon credits, standard setters and financial
institutions.
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale; editing by Barbara Lewis)
