The Challenges

Carbon markets have the potential to drive meaningful climate action, from protecting forests to scaling carbon removal technologies. However, the market has struggled to scale due to widespread perception that credits are riskier than other climate solutions and a lack of digital, standardized, and interoperable market infrastructure that is standard in mature markets. These are self-reinforcing challenges: with a fragmented data landscape, all market actors struggle to secure or exchange the project data that would alleviate concerns about quality; without that data, perception of risk remains high. Until both challenges are tackled, the carbon markets will remain niche and struggle to catalyze the finance and innovation needed to accelerate global decarbonization.  

Our Work

RMI’s Carbon Markets Initiative works to resolve both challenges: combining market expertise, technical depth, and extensive partnerships to bring greater standardization to how carbon crediting data is exchanged and greater clarity in how market actors evaluate quality. All our resources are released in public or open-source formats – and usually pursued through partnerships or coalitions – to ensure that the analysis and technical specifications are available to all market actors.   

Navigating the Complexity and Dynamism of the Carbon Markets 

Carbon pricing schemes – from the voluntary carbon market to domestic or international carbon markets – are becoming both more common and more complex, as governments and companies look for tools to incentivize the global energy transition. This growth and complexity can be a sign of maturity – a marker that the carbon markets are covering more solutions and raising the bar on how credits showcase their climate impact. Yet, it often happens quickly – leaving buyers looking for neutral, independent explanations of what is evolving and why that matters.  

CMI provides that unbiased perspective. Our analysis of super pollutant credits, including efforts to plug orphaned oil and gas wells, destroy ozone depleting substances, or improve rice cultivation, is helping market actors improve their standards and buyers identify the high-quality projects that fit in their portfolios.  

We have forthcoming work to lay out best practices in stakeholder consultations, which is vital to project durability, and untangle the relationship among the voluntary market, Article 6, and CORSIA.