all in on climate: the Role of Carbon credits in Corporate Climate Strategies

The report finds that companies purchasing voluntary carbon credits are generally climate leaders who outperform non-buyers in emissions transparency, target ambition, and direct decarbonization investments, suggesting credits are used as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, internal emissions reductions.

• Companies participating in the voluntary carbon market (VCM) demonstrate higher levels of climate governance and transparency than non-participants. Specifically, 97% of VCM buyers have board-level oversight of climate-related activities, making them 1.2 times more likely to have such oversight than non-buyers.
• VCM buyers are more likely to disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and provide more detailed reporting on value chain emissions. They are 1.2 times more likely to disclose emissions to CDP, and the median VCM buyer disclosed over 2.5 times the volume of Scope 3 emissions compared to non-buyers.
• Voluntary carbon buyers exhibit greater climate ambition, with a significantly higher prevalence of science-based and net-zero targets. VCM buyers are 3.4 times more likely to have an approved science-based target and 3 times more likely to include Scope 3 emissions in their targets than non-buyers.
• VCM participants invest more heavily in direct emissions reduction activities than non-participants. While VCM buyers represent only 17% of companies disclosing such investments, they account for 40% of the total investment. The median VCM buyer spent $1,338,557 on reductions, compared to $447,220 for the typical non-buyer.
• The volume of voluntary carbon credits purchased represents a very small fraction of the total emissions of the buying companies. On average, these credits cover just over 2% (2.16%) of a VCM buyer's total GHG emissions.
• There is a significant gap in transparency regarding VCM participation; only 8.2% of known corporate buyers identified by Ecosystem Marketplace disclosed their carbon market engagement to CDP in 2022.

APA

We Mean Business Coalition (2023). all in on climate: the Role of Carbon credits in Corporate Climate Strategies. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ecosystem-Marketplace-All-in-on-Climate_The-Role-of-Carbon-Credits-in-Corporate-Climate-Strategies.pdf

Chicago

We Mean Business Coalition. all in on climate: the Role of Carbon credits in Corporate Climate Strategies. 2023. https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ecosystem-Marketplace-All-in-on-Climate_The-Role-of-Carbon-Credits-in-Corporate-Climate-Strategies.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=We Mean Business Coalition |title=all in on climate: the Role of Carbon credits in Corporate Climate Strategies |date=October 2023 |url=https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ecosystem-Marketplace-All-in-on-Climate_The-Role-of-Carbon-Credits-in-Corporate-Climate-Strategies.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wemeanbusinesscoalition2023all, author = {{We Mean Business Coalition}}, title = {{all in on climate: the Role of Carbon credits in Corporate Climate Strategies}}, institution = {We Mean Business Coalition}, year = {2023}, month = oct, url = {https://www.wemeanbusinesscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Ecosystem-Marketplace-All-in-on-Climate_The-Role-of-Carbon-Credits-in-Corporate-Climate-Strategies.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }