Voluntary carbon credit markets - spear-heading growth
Last updated
Last updated
An increase in issuances, transactions, and prices has accelerated the growth of carbon credit markets over the past year. Additional certainties created from new carbon market rules set at COP26 will help international compliance markets develop further in the coming years.
However, at present, the voluntary carbon market is the one driving the increased market activity.
Carbon credit markets grew 48% in 2021. The total number of credits issued from international, domestic, and independent credit mechanisms increased from 327 million to 478 million. This is the biggest year-on-year increase since 2012 which was the previous peak of carbon credit issuance. The total number of credits issued since 2007 is around 4.7 billion tCO2e.