Carbon Credits and Offsets

Carbon credits are issued to those companies regulated by climate change legislation in order to limit their carbon emissions. Credits can be traded in carbon markets, which enables the carbon reductions to be realised efficiently.

Offsets are a kind of credit created by investing in projects that reduce carbon emissions. Certain types of these offsets can be traded as credits, but the complexity and cost of registering projects in the regulated market means that only very large projects can produce this kind of carbon offset.

There is also a large market in voluntary offsets, which cannot be sold into the regulated market, but provide good value offsets to those businesses and individuals who decide to offset their greenhouse gas emissions on a voluntary basis. These are produced by a wider range of projects, including smaller projects where local communities are more likely to see the direct benefits. Voluntary offset standards are in place to provide a quality assurance for the projects. Forest Moor uses the CCB Standard, created by the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance.