Carbon Markets are Not Climate Finance

The policy brief contends that carbon markets are a flawed mechanism that fails to provide real climate finance, instead allowing Global North polluters to avoid direct emission reductions while potentially harming Global South communities.

• Carbon markets are fundamentally flawed because land-based removals cannot offset CO2 emitted from burning fossil fuels, as fossil carbon stored for millennia is not equivalent to carbon stored in living trees.
• The use of carbon credits as a substitute for direct emission reductions disincentivizes corporations and countries in the Global North from curbing their own fossil fuel production and use, thereby perpetuating the fossil economy.
• Carbon credit projects often fail to benefit frontline communities, with the majority of financial gains going to project developers or middlemen rather than Indigenous Peoples or local NGOs.
• Carbon markets can increase the cost of climate mitigation for host countries in the Global South because once credits are sold, those actions cannot be counted toward the host country's own climate goals due to double-counting rules.

APA

Lennon, E. (2024). Carbon Markets are Not Climate Finance. Center for International Environmental Law. https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Carbon-Market-Not-Climate-Finance.pdf

Chicago

Lennon, Erika. Carbon Markets are Not Climate Finance. Center for International Environmental Law, 2024. https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Carbon-Market-Not-Climate-Finance.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Lennon |first1=Erika |title=Carbon Markets are Not Climate Finance |publisher=Center for International Environmental Law |date=November 2024 |url=https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Carbon-Market-Not-Climate-Finance.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{lennon2024carbon, author = {Lennon, Erika}, title = {{Carbon Markets are Not Climate Finance}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2024}, month = nov, url = {https://ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Carbon-Market-Not-Climate-Finance.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }