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State of European Markets 2017 – Voluntary Carbon

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In 2015, Ecosystem Marketplace tracked European voluntary buyers purchasing 16.1 MtCO2e, typically from renewable energy and forestry projects. Nearly all of the voluntary carbon offsets bought by European buyers originated from projects outside of Europe. Projects located in Europe produced relatively few carbon offsets for the voluntary market. The purpose of this report is to examine the sale and purchase of voluntary carbon offsets in Europe. The report covers four areas: 1. First, the bulk of this report describes the sale of voluntary offsets by European-headquartered organisations6. This includes market data (volume, value, and price) that is further broken down in terms of offset location, project type and other attributes. Where available, we also provided this data for a smaller market segment regarding forestry offsets from projects located in Europe (Box 1). 2. Second, by drawing on Ecosystem Marketplace’s larger, global dataset of offset sales, the report also shines a light on the purchase of offsets by European-headquartered organizations. 3. Third, to add additional context, the report includes information about the important role of European countries in providing results-based payments, outside of markets, to countries working to conserve their tropical forests. 4. Finally, country-level chapters provide additional detail on market activity and key policy developments in countries that are most active in the global voluntary carbon markets, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom (UK).