Rating the Raters: Assessing Carbon Credit Rating Agencies

The document evaluates the performance of BeZero, Calyx, Renoster, and Sylvera, noting that while their frameworks are generally well-conceived, stark differences in project assessments can create market confusion and risk legitimising low-quality credits. It provides specific recommendations for agencies to improve their handling of reversal risk, leakage, and additionality, while advising buyers to focus blame on low-scoring projects rather than the rating agencies themselves.

• The study identified significant inconsistencies in how four major rating agencies—BeZero, Calyx, Renoster, and Sylvera—evaluate key factors such as additionality, non-permanence risks, leakage risks, and co-benefits and safeguards, which can lead to starkly different assessments of the same projects.
• While carbon credit rating frameworks are generally considered well-designed, there is a risk that inconsistent ratings could legitimise the use of low-quality carbon credits.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2023). Rating the Raters: Assessing Carbon Credit Rating Agencies. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/rating-the-raters-assessing-carbon-credit-rating-agencies/

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Rating the Raters: Assessing Carbon Credit Rating Agencies. 2023. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/rating-the-raters-assessing-carbon-credit-rating-agencies/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Rating the Raters: Assessing Carbon Credit Rating Agencies |date=10 September 2023 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/rating-the-raters-assessing-carbon-credit-rating-agencies/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2023rating, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Rating the Raters: Assessing Carbon Credit Rating Agencies}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2023}, month = sep, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/publications/rating-the-raters-assessing-carbon-credit-rating-agencies/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }