Project-based carbon credits: Regulatory and market reforms

Project-based carbon credits—carbon offset credits that are generated through emissions reductions projects—have emerged as a market-based tool to raise capital for emissions reductions. However, as these credits proliferate in compliance markets (e.g., the California cap-and-trade program) and in voluntary markets (e.g., as firms buy these credits to offset their emissions), significant concerns have arisen about market integrity, efficiency, and trust.

On Thursday, May 28, the Center on Regulation and Markets at the Brookings Institution will host a public event examining the challenges facing project-based carbon markets and proposals for their reform. Part of the Center’s ongoing series, Reimagining Modern-day Markets and Regulations, the event will kick off with a keynote and fireside chat from Annette Nazareth, chair of the governing board for the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, who will assess the current state of carbon credit markets and offer a vision for the path forward. Nellie Liang, senior fellow at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings, will moderate the conversation.

Following the keynote, a panel of distinguished experts—including Derik Broekhoff (Stockholm Environment Institute), Sanjay Patnaik (Brookings), Erin Shortell (Institute for Policy Integrity), and Philippe Delacote (INRAE)—will discuss specific policy proposals drawn from their recent research, exploring how carbon markets might be strengthened, better regulated, and more effectively designed. The panel will be moderated by David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at Brookings.

Online viewers can pose questions in advance by emailing [email protected].