There is a great need for immediate climate action with tools to mobilize financing for transition to a low-carbon economy and the need grows more urgent by the day. To achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the global community needs to reach net-zero emissions by no later than 2050. The voluntary carbon market has the potential to significantly accelerate efforts to mitigate climate change and achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Investments needed for scaling emerging low-carbon technologies do not meet the risk and return expectations of today’s markets. An effective and adaptable carbon market can facilitate capital flows to these technologies through carbon offsetting mechanisms established on the principles that emerged in initiatives such as Clean Development Mechanism. Carbon credits enable organizations to compensate for emissions by financing the avoidance/reduction of emissions from other sources, or removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and thus contribute to the transition to global net-zero. Carbon credits also support emerging climate technologies and can help scale down costs and introduce these technologies to market earlier by decreasing additional costs against carbon-intensive alternatives. It is thus crucial to identify and support new and expensive technology and to help finance and deploying these solutions now, so that economic development can continue in countries across the world, including those rapidly industrializing today
