Voluntary compensation for greenhouse gas emissions – proposals and players

Voluntary compensation of greenhouse gas emissions is becoming increasingly important. More and more people want the emissions they cause to be balanced out by reduced greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. And evermore companies are interested in making certain products or their entire business activity "climate neutral". This explains why the number of providers of compensation services and the range of climate neutral products in Germany is growing rapidly. However, there are no approval procedures or mandatory standards for voluntary compensation measures. This leads to variable quality on a market which is confusing for consumers.

A market analysis for the German-speaking countries was designed to create more transparency and allow an overview of the players and their turnovers. A focus of the investigation is placed on the comparison of the voluntary market with the prescriptive market. The extent to which the two markets currently complement one another is analysed in this context. The primary aim of the project is to establish a basis of information to allow the German emissions trading authority to improve the overall state of information on the voluntary compensation market.