State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2021

Installment 1: Market in Motion

This first installment of EM’s flagship State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets (SOVCM) 2021 report offers insights into key trends and developments related to international voluntary carbon credits (also referred to as carbon offsets), based upon aggregated and anonymized EM Global Carbon Survey Respondent-reported data and interviews.

Trends in the Implementation of Ethical Supply Chains: A 2020 Snapshot of the Cocoa Sector

Over the past few decades, cocoa production has emerged as a driver of land use change, particularly in West Africa. In addition to its significant contributions to deforestation, cocoa production has also faced intense public scrutiny due to human rights violations, especially the use of child labor. In Trends in the Implementation of Ethical Supply[…]

A Green Growth Spurt

State of Forest Carbon Finance 2021

It’s been 30 years since Applied Energy Services teamed up with the World Resources Institute and the humanitarian aid organization CARE to pilot the first known use of carbon finance to slow climate change by saving forests. That project, dubbed “Mi Bosque” (“My Forest”), reversed deforestation by helping Guatemalan farmers implement agroforestry practices that increased […]

State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020: The Only Constant is Change

Building upon the first installment of the State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020, this second installment presents additional Ecosystem Marketplace data and analysis in light of recent recommendations from the Institute of International Finance’s Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets to provide insights into: How voluntary carbon offset market participants price both core carbon […]

State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020: Voluntary Carbon and the Post-Pandemic Recovery

A Special Climate Week NYC 2020 Installment of Ecosystem Marketplace’s State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020 Report

In this special Climate Week NYC installment of the State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020, we discuss key insights and findings garnered from Forest Trends’ annual 2020 Ecosystem Marketplace Carbon Survey cycle. Key Findings from this installment: Corporate carbon-neutral pledges fueled a record transaction volume of at least 104 MtCO2e in 2019, which is an[…]

State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020

Voluntary Carbon and the Post-Pandemic Recovery

This Insights Brief is the first installment in the State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2020 series of analyses, to be published over several months in late 2020. In this installment, we discuss key insights and findings garnered from Forest Trends’ annual 2020 Ecosystem Marketplace Carbon Survey cycle. Every year since 2006, Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace […]

State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019: Market Dynamics

We are pleased to present the State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019, which includes data collected for calendar years 2017 and 2018. This report presents insights compiled through off-the-record interviews by Ecosystem Marketplace’s carbon team with a diverse set of market participants, examining voluntary carbon markets dynamics in 2019. What emerged in these interviews […]

State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019: Market Direction

We are pleased to present the State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019, which includes data collected for calendar years 2017 and 2018. This report presents insights compiled through off-the-record interviews by Ecosystem Marketplace’s carbon team with a diverse set of market participants, examining voluntary carbon markets’ direction in 2020 and beyond. If there’s one […]

State of Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019: Market Overview

We are pleased to present the State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2019, which includes data collected for calendar years 2017 and 2018. Also included are insights compiled through interviews with a diverse set of market participants covering trends through late 2019. This voluntary carbon markets overview provides a brief timeline of major milestones in […]

Zooming In: Companies, Commodities, & Traceability Commitments that Count, 2018

“Zooming In” presents new analysis by Forest Trends’ Supply Change Initiative and Ceres about how companies that are committed to addressing commodity-driven deforestation are tracing supplies to their origin—be it factory, farm, field, or forest—so they can determine the impact their supply chains have on forests. Companies with exposure to deforestation in their supply chains […]

Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-free Supply Chains, 2017

Supply Change draws from already available data to track companies, their commitments, and their progress towards these commitments over time to support stakeholders’ decision-making and, ultimately, to drive transformational change. In addition to providing an update on the state of corporate commitments as companies continue to establish and pursue their pledges to deforestation-free supply chains, this report […]

Progress on the New York Declaration on Forests: Eliminating Deforestation from the Production of Agricultural Commodities, Goal 2 Assessment Report

In September 2014, the New York Declaration on Forests (NYDF) outlined 10 goals that provide endorsers—including countries, subnational governments, companies, indigenous groups, and NGOs— with ambitious global targets to protect forests and end natural forest loss by 2030. This report focuses on Goal 2: eliminating deforestation from agricultural commodity supply chains. It draws on data from[…]

Supply Change: Tracking Corporate Commitments to Deforestation-free Supply Chains, 2016

A new report from Forest Trends’ Supply Change project tracks progress on 579 public commitments from companies around the world who have pledged to remove forest destruction from their supply chains. These businesses depend on the “big four” agricultural commodities – palm oil, wood products, soy, and cattle – that are found in nearly every aisle of […]

Firm Commitments

Tracking Company Endorsers of the New York Declaration on Forests

At the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit, 180 governments, companies, indigenous community networks, and civil society organizations signaled their commitment to ending deforestation by endorsing the New York Declaration on Forests, which set a goal to halve natural forest loss by 2020 and end it by 2030. Fast forward one year, and many of the […]

Supply Change: Corporations, Commodities, and Commitments that Count

A transformational resource for businesses, investors, governments, and the civil society organizations that support and hold them accountable

The Issue Commercial agriculture drives at least two-thirds of tropical deforestation. The worst of these forest impacts come from a few agricultural commodities – palm oil, soy, timber & pulp, and cattle – which are valuable inputs to millions of consumer products, from snack foods to shampoos to clothing to paper to housing materials. The […]