‘This is not a forum for reducing poverty’: the moral economy of the voluntary carbon market

Abstract

ABSTRACT Carbon offsetting is premised on the ability to commensurate carbon, so that emissions and reductions across different contexts can be made equivalent and therefore interchangeable. The voluntary carbon market has been promoted as being able to reduce emissions and achieve co-benefits. Through interviews with 35 market participants, I map out different moral understandings that market participants have about offsetting and its goals. While all actors agree that proving real emissions reductions is essential, they differ in terms of the importance of co-benefits to the market. These different conceptions of climate responsibility and the tensions between them are considered in the context of the need to make offsets and emissions commensurable.