Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market

The report finds a significant gap between where VCM projects are located and where the managing companies are based, with a strong prevalence of companies from wealthy countries operating in less affluent regions, particularly in Africa. This disparity, combined with a lack of financial transparency, raises concerns that the VCM may not be effectively channeling funds to intended beneficiaries in developing nations.

• There is a substantial discrepancy between project locations and the headquarters of involved companies, with firms from wealthy countries typically managing projects situated in less affluent nations.
• In a sample of African VCM projects, 62% of involved companies were based in countries with 'very high' human development, while only 15% were based in countries with 'low' human development, despite the latter hosting over 64% of the sample projects.
• The disparity is particularly acute for project roles with the most control over funds; in the African sample, over 67% of project developers and 63% of project owners were located in 'very highly developed' countries outside of Africa.
• Companies based outside of Africa dominate the operational roles of African projects, with 81% of roles filled by companies not based on the African continent and only 17% filled by companies in the project's host country.
• A lack of transparency regarding financial flows makes it impossible to verify if revenues are reaching local communities or are being diverted as profit to actors in the Global North.
• The report identifies a failure in documentation transparency, noting that six out of 14 Gold Standard projects in the African sample were missing crucial documents despite mandatory disclosure rules.

APA

Wyburd, I. (2024). Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final_Due-South_Geographic-disparity-of-project-actors-in-the-voluntary-carbon-market.pdf

Chicago

Wyburd, Inigo. Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market. Carbon Market Watch, 2024. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final_Due-South_Geographic-disparity-of-project-actors-in-the-voluntary-carbon-market.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wyburd |first1=Inigo |title=Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=July 2024 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final_Due-South_Geographic-disparity-of-project-actors-in-the-voluntary-carbon-market.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wyburd2024geographic, author = {Wyburd, Inigo}, title = {{Geographic disparity of project actors in the voluntary carbon market}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2024}, month = jul, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Final_Due-South_Geographic-disparity-of-project-actors-in-the-voluntary-carbon-market.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }