We’re pleased to announce that, for the 5th year running, VCS has been voted the Best Voluntary Standard in Environmental Finance’s voluntary carbon market rankings. This is a tremendous achievement and we want to thank all of you who voted and participated in the survey. 

State of the Voluntary Carbon Market

2015 Market Share
2015 Market Share by Standard from Ecosystem Marketplace

Ecosystem Marketplace has also recently released their Raising Ambition: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2016 report. The report provides insights into the voluntary carbon market, including the fact that the VCS Program, on its own and in combination with the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards, continues to lead the market. 

About half of all transactions in the voluntary carbon market rely on the VCS and CCB Programs that we manage and offsets that we issue. VCS has been the leading voluntary standard by transaction volume for the past eight years. 

The ‘State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets’ report also clearly showed that 3rd party standards continue to play an important role in the voluntary market. 98% of all offsets purchased in 2015 were verified by a 3rd party standard. Though prices were down, credits with additional standards, such as CCB, traded at higher average prices.

Now more than ever, VCS is committed to ensuring that our standards remain robust, transparent and meaningful. We look forward to continuing to support climate leadership and sustainable business and to continuing our market leadership through high standards, new methodologies and hard work.