A promise made is not a promise kept: Scaling voluntary carbon markets accountability with federal agency collaboration

Voluntary carbon markets currently face challenges in standardization, quality assurance, trust,

transparency, permanence, and additionality. A lack of standardization and quality assurance can

lead to confusion and difficulty in comparing different carbon credits. Trust and transparency are

essential for maintaining the market's integrity and attracting investment. Lastly, permanence and

additionality are critical for driving new carbon reductions. These issues hinder the voluntary

carbon market and limit the potential for carbon credits to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This thesis suggests an effective federal regulatory policy focusing on the verification and

standardization of carbon credit calculation in the voluntary carbon market in the United States.

The CFTC, in cooperation with other agencies, has the authority to create a compliance measure

that keeps projects and verifiers accountable. The policy should increase transparency and

legitimacy of carbon credits in the voluntary market. Collaborative interagency efforts and

shared enforcement among present market participants can enhance accessibility, transparency,

and credibility of the voluntary carbon market while guaranteeing new carbon calculation

methodologies to be legitimate.