In this paper, we aim to examine how voluntary carbon markets can provide a valuable contribution to strengthening domestic and international climate policies. Voluntary markets are defined as small and unregulated segments of an established carbon market that are driven by voluntary offsetting of GHG emissions.

Although still accounting for a small segment of the global carbon market, the voluntary carbon market is a place for innovation where original solutions are proposed to deal with some challenges faced by the regulatory market, including efforts to value the occasional ancillary benefits of climate action, to simplify methodologies, or to guarantee the permanence of forestry assets.