Isramart : Carbon emission offsets may now be transferred across registries

Isramart news:
The Voluntary Carbon Standard Association, carbon emission offsets can be transferred across different registries. This is expected to boost liquidity in the voluntary carbon market.

According to a report from Reuters, the Voluntary Carbon Standard registry system is now able to transfer carbon emission offsets across different registries. This was confirmed by the Voluntary Carbon Standard Association on Monday.

The VCS multiple registry was launched in March but the transfer process was delayed due to technical reasons.

Carbon offsetting is a way for companies or individuals to voluntarily compensate for unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions by funding cuts in carbon dioxide elsewhere.

Transferring offsets called Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) across different registries should boost liquidity in the voluntary carbon market and encourage more interest from the United States as efforts are made to advance climate change legislation there. This is the first time independent registries have built a framework to communicate directly with each other and to transfer units from one registry to another without having to go through a central clearing house.

“We are very pleased that the registry functionality originally envisioned by the VCSA is now fully in place,” VCSA’s chief executive David Antonioli said in a statement.

“Being able to transfer VCUs from one registry to another both broadens the scope for transactions and strengthens the unique VCS system,” he added.

Carbon credits totaling 123 million metric tons, valued at $705 million, were transacted in the global voluntary carbon market in 2008, according to New Energy Finance and Ecosystem Marketplace estimates.

U.S. climate change legislation could allow a total of up to 2 billion metric tons of offsets a year to be used in a cap-and-trade scheme from domestic and international sources.