Photo by: Bloomberg
Several major carbon traders are finding that offsets they bought may now be valueless, Bloomberg reports. A carbon credit is a paper security representing one ton of carbon dioxide reduced or removed from the atmosphere, generated by projects like wind farms or planting trees and preventing deforestation, such as is the case with the Gabon forests pictured. Recently Trafigura Group, which is the world’s largest trader of carbon-removal credits, suspended a consignment as it awaited the results of a probe into the forestry project behind the units. It’s reportedly the latest in a string of cases in which traders handling carbon credits are having to treat such assets as stranded. Photograph: Bloomberg