Carbon credit certifier Verra is to replace its rainforests offset programme after an investigation found it was flawed, reports The Guardian.
A nine-month investigation carried out by The Guardian, German Die Zeit and non-profit SourceMaterial – which undertakes investigations around climate change – found widespread problems with the system.
‘Our analysis of nearly 100 million carbon credits found that only a fraction of them resulted in real emissions reductions,’ SourceMaterial reported in January. ‘It raises questions for the organisations that many of the world’s biggest companies, and the consumers who buy their products, rely on to set the standard for effective carbon offsetting—in particular the biggest of them, Verra.’
In a report published on Friday (10 March), The Guardian said Verra had informed the newspaper that it is committed to jettisoning its rainforest protection programme by July 2025 and introducing new rules, which it is developing.
In recent years, offsets certified by Verra have been used by companies across the maritime value chain, including shipping and energy companies, commodity traders and bunker suppliers.
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