How the Next Big Thing in Carbon Removal Sunk Without a Trace Highlight

The idea of companies “offsetting” their carbon footprint began in the 1980s. Back then, you could buy into, say, a forestry or bamboo-growing project that offered up to 80 years of carbon sequestration. As the popularity of offsetting grew, middlemen emerged to verify credits that had been produced and offer them to potential buyers. An offsetter would make a claim about a project, an intermediary like the nonprofit Verra, which runs the Verified Carbon Standard Program, would kick the tires and list the credits on a registry, and emitters would buy them. By 2022 this had turned into a $1.9 billion industry, with Verra overseeing the lion’s share of sales.