According to Climate Home News, The carbon credit industry has successfully fought off a push by climate vulnerable nations to place a mandatory levy on voluntary carbon offsets to fund climate change adaptation measures. The Alliance for Small Island States wanted to make the 5% levy mandatory for Credits under the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), and the Integrity Council on the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), supported this. However after lobbying the 5% levy is only optional. Guinea’s climate negotiator Alpha Kaloga said they were pleased that a 5% levy was there, even if it is optional. “I believe that this principle will become the rule in the near future,” said Kaloga. The ICVCM will continue consultations on whether to make a 5% levy mandatory in its next set of guidelines, scheduled to launch in 2025. Voluntary credits are different to credits under the former Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and now Article 6.4. of the Paris Agreement, and thus subject to their own internal (voluntary) guidelines.
