In the context of the President Biden’s Leaders’ Summit the US, UK and Norway, together with Amazon, have announced a $1bn initiative to purchase carbon credits from countries that reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

The announcement comes as more and more companies are buying carbon credits from forestry projects, however Carbon Market Watch has pointed out that while countries in this coalition say that they will not count the reductions towards their own targets, this is less clear for companies. The risk of double counting the reductions, once by the country where they take place and once by the company buying the credits, remains.

Gilles Dufrasne, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch, said: “We need to channel finance to forest conservation on a large scale, and we cannot use this as an excuse to continue polluting. An emission reduction should only be counted once, and the new coalition should more clearly explain how they will ensure this. Today, too many companies are planning to offset their emissions with reductions that are already being counted by other countries.“

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