The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) has today at COP27 launched a 90 day consultation on the compliance carbon markets and on enhancing the resilience and integrity of the voluntary carbon markets (VCM). (Read the full release at: https://www.iosco.org/news/pdf/IOSCONEWS668.pdf)
Of the launch, Integrity Council Chair Annette Nazareth, a former Commissioner of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said:
“Mobilizing private capital is critical to channel investment towards a just transition to 1.5C and the voluntary carbon markets are an important and complementary tool to unlock investment and accelerate collective global action to reach net zero emissions. But the VCM will only realize its full potential if rooted in integrity, trust and accountability, when high-integrity credits are used in complement to science-aligned decarbonization.
Robust regulation can provide a coherent enabling environment and level playing field for high-integrity climate action worldwide. As the carbon markets scale, sound and transparent oversight from financial market regulators is necessary to ensure resilient development, liquidity and high integrity. This is a key step in building trust, reducing market fragmentation and unlocking new and additional investment in the VCM.
We welcome the launch of IOSCO’s 90 day public consultation as an important opportunity to receive input from market actors on the role of financial a framework that will promote market integrity and drive investor capital. This is complementary to the work of the Integrity Council as we look to unlock investment through a set of agreed CCPs and Assessment Framework for high-integrity carbon credits, so a high-integrity VCM can exponentially increase the positive impact it creates.”
