Companies that create and sell carbon credits are considering options from public listings to the business model used by the precious metals industry to attract investment to the market.
Credits, each of which are supposed to represent a tonne of carbon avoided or removed from the atmosphere and are generated by environmental projects such as tree planting, can be bought by companies to offset emissions.
In early December, London-listed investment group Foresight Sustainable Forestry Company, which is developing carbon credit projects, became the first to receive the London Stock Exchange’s new “voluntary carbon market” label — in reference to offsets bought voluntarily rather than to meet legal emissions targets.