Voluntary Emissions Reductions
VER stands for Voluntary Emissions Reductions or Verified Emissions Reductions. Both refer to the emerging market for carbon credits outside the Kyoto Protocol compliance regime. General market opinion is that the wider scope of the voluntary market, and growth led by the private sector, not public policy, means that it has a strong potential to outstrip the mature market size of the compliance regime.
Demand for VER's has been strong. Last year (2010) Bloomberg's announced the voluntary market had increased by 34% from January 2009. This is largely down to a shift in this market to a more structured growth, facilitated greatly by the development of credible intermediaries such as the Bank of New York.
VER's are generated by projects verified by a third party. This means that individuals and companies can reduce their emissions in a more efficient and cost effective way. VER's are subject to a high standard, and emissions reductions must be:
- Real
- Measurable
- Permanent
- Additional to what is already being done
- Independently Verified
Carbon Capital trades only in VER's that have been verified by the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) along with other reputable independent third party standards such as The Gold Standard and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCBS).
Carbon Capital "because nature doesn't do bail outs."
Now, we put out a lot of carbon dioxide every year, over 26 billion tons. For each American, it's about 20 tons. For people
in poor countries, it's less than one ton. It's an average of about five tons for everyone on the planet. And, somehow,
we have to make changes that will bring that down to zero.