The Verified Carbon Market Collaborative
The Verified Carbon Market Collaborative (VCM+ Collaborative) is a global initiative uniting leaders across science, policy, finance, and practice to build the next-generation Verified Carbon Market—a market that is trusted, equitable, and capable of delivering 5 billion tons of high-integrity climate outcomes and mobilizing $100 billion in finance between 2026 and 2035.
Carbon markets operate across a distributed system of international rules, national policies, standards bodies, registries, and regulatory frameworks. No single institution governs the system end-to-end.
Rather than replace or duplicate the work of existing institutions, the Collaborative acts as a central coordinator—aligning efforts, mobilizing resources, and amplifying progress across this fragmented landscape. It supports scaled implementation and resources for both compliance and voluntary markets and actors.
The VCM+ Collaborative advances this role through four connected modes of work:
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Supporting global conversations and alignment on shared priorities and needs across compliance and voluntary markets,
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Convening expert-led sprints to develop targeted solutions to clearly defined needs;
Supporting piloting and testing of those solutions in real market contexts; and
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Embedding successful approaches into the policies, regulations, standards, and institutional processes that govern the market.
Trusted communications
The VCM+ fosters a culture of transparency, accountability, and clarity in all market interactions. It restores confidence in high-integrity, market-based climate solutions through consistent, credible, and accessible communications that empower informed stakeholder engagement.
The VCM+ Collaborative’s vision defines what a high-performing, verified carbon market looks like. It is organized around five interconnected pillars that represent where coordinated reform can deliver the greatest impact across the system.
Our vision
High-integrity science
The VCM+ is grounded in rigorous scientific standards that ensure carbon credits effectively reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions. It advances research, data systems, and methodologies that continuously improve market integrity and deepen understanding and implementations of carbon activities that support broader environmental and social goals.
Robust oversight
The VCM+ is governed by a strong legal and institutional framework and supported by modern, interoperable market infrastructure aligned with financial market principles. It enables the large-scale issuance of high-integrity carbon credits while ensuring Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities receive tangible benefits and are protected by robust social and environmental safeguards.
Targeted finance
The VCM+ mobilizes scaled, accessible capital through innovative carbon finance instruments that unlock high-impact mitigation projects. It equitably channels funding to local and frontline communities as key partners in climate action, advancing climate resilience and sustainable development.
Scaled demand
The VCM+ enables climate-ambitious companies and governments to meet climate goals by credibly purchasing and retiring high-integrity carbon credits at scale. It supports claim integrity and transparent use, driving sustained demand aligned with global climate objectives.
The VCM+ Collaborative team
Alexia Kelly
Managing Director
Alexia is the Managing Director for the VCM+ Collaborative, providing guidance and expertise to maximize the impact of the Collaborative. Alexia has worked for more than 17 years at the intersection of policy and finance to address the climate crisis. She previously served as Director of Net Zero + Nature at Netflix, where she led the company’s inaugural greenhouse gas inventory, renewable energy strategy, Science Based Target, and global carbon credit portfolio. She has held senior roles at the U.S. Department of State, where she served as lead negotiator to the UNFCCC on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. She has also held roles at the World Resources Institute, The David and Lucille Packard Foundation, The Climate Trust, and in private equity. She serves on multiple non-profit boards and holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Public Administration and a Master in Community and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon.
Matt Jordan
Communications Director
Matt is the Communications Director of the VCM+ Collaborative, helping amplify the work of the Collaborative and the importance of carbon markets as a tool for climate action. Matt has extensive experience in coalition building, strategic communications, and program design and implementation. Previously, he served as Director at RMI, where he co-led the creation of the Energy Transition Academy, an ambitious effort to build the workforce capacity needed to accelerate clean energy deployment worldwide. Earlier in his career, Matt built and led CLASP's Clean Energy Access portfolio, helping establish energy efficiency as a core pillar of global energy access and sustainable development. Matt holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of California Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Colgate University.
Madeleine Carnemark
VCM+ Collaborative Director
Madeleine is the Director of the VCM+ Collaborative. Prior to this role, she worked as the Carbon and Nature Finance Lead within the Global Permanence Fund at ZOMALAB and at McKinsey & Company, where she was a leader in the Sustainability Practice and a founding member of the Nature Service Line. She has advised Fortune 500 companies, governments, and global NGOs on corporate climate strategy, carbon market reform, conservation planning, community economic development, and jurisdictional decarbonization. She has also held roles at Rocky Mountain Institute, Environmental Defense Fund, and other NGOs, advancing climate tech innovation, corporate sustainability, and federal environmental policy. Madeleine holds a Master of Business Administration/Master of Science in Sustainable Business Strategy and Environmental Justice from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and School for Environment and Sustainability, and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and Philosophy from Tulane University.
Yasemin Emami
Program Manager
Yasemin is a Program Manager for the VCM+ Collaborative, working within the Global Permanence Fund at ZOMALAB. As part of the VCM+ Collaborative team, she is working with partners in the space to build a more unified, trustworthy, and scalable carbon market. Yasemin studied at Brown University and the United States Air Force Academy where she developed her passion for working with teams to create sustainable solutions. Prior to this role, she worked as a Senior Business Analyst at McKinsey and Company supporting organizations in the development and execution of strategic priorities and growth initiatives.
Chris Davis
Policy Advisor
With experience across government, business, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector, Chris is a Policy Advisor for the VCM+ Collaborative. He previously developed the sustainability practice on Amazon’s public policy team where he led a team that woked decarbonization, fleet electrification, and corporate climate commitments. Earlier, Chris spent six years in the Washington Governor's Office as Senior Policy Advisor for Climate and Energy Affairs, where he helped pass landmark legislation on clean energy, carbon pricing, electrification and clean transportation. Chris holds a Master of Arts in Geography from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Pitzer College.
The VCM+ Fellows
AJ Bird
VCM+ Fellow
AJ Bird is a Treaty 8 Indian from Deninu K’ue First Nation working at the intersection of carbon market integrity, Indigenous governance, climate infrastructure, and climate intelligence systems. Her work focuses on strengthening high-integrity carbon markets through rights-holder governance models, carbon removal strategy, and environmental market design, informed by experience spanning climate technology project development, Indigenous climate finance, and emerging climate infrastructure systems. AJ is Co-Founder and Chief Partnership Officer of AVNGRDE and serves in leadership roles supporting biodiversity finance, environmental governance, and Indigenous participation in emerging environmental markets.
Ashish Kumar
VCM+ Fellow
Ashish Kumar comes from a long background in private market climate investing and innovative philanthropy – with funding experience across backing ventures, large-scale programs, and Funds as an LP. Ashish's deal experiences range across various climate and impact sectors – with a special focus on catalytic finance/blended finance, carbon markets, and private institutional capital mobilisation.
Alvin Lim
VCM+ Fellow
Alvin Lim is the CEO and Co-founder of Climate Bridge International, where he leads the international business of Climate Bridge Group, one of Asia's leading carbon finance companies. He was formerly the Head of Asia Environmental Products at Morgan Stanley and Vice President in the Enterprise Strategy team at GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), where he authored several white papers on the role of carbon markets for asset owners. Alvin is a member of the Expert Advisory Group of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) and a Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore Centre for Governance and Sustainability. He holds a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Business Administration from the National University of Singapore.
Benoît Clément
VCM+ Fellow
Benoît Clément is a carbon markets development strategist with fifteen years of experience spanning institutional banking, environmental program management, and climate ventures, including three years as Director of Financial Innovation at Verra. His work maps the financial infrastructure gap—legal title, custody and settlement, data integrity, and commercial connectivity—that limits institutional capital deployment into carbon markets. A former co-chair of IETA’s Digital Climate Markets Working Group, former certified arborist, he holds an Executive MBA, and a CPO Certificate from Northwestern Kellogg.
Anna Lerner Nesbitt
VCM+ Fellow
Anna Lerner Nesbitt is a sustainability leader with 20 years of experience across Meta, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility. Currently the Founder & CEO of Climate Collective, a 501c3 nonprofit directing AI to support positive outcomes for people and planet.
Campbell Moore
VCM+ Fellow
As TNC's Global Managing Director for Carbon Markets, Campbell Moore works with TNC staff, partners, communities, investors, policymakers and others to ensure carbon markets reach their full potential as a transformative climate solution that can also improve millions of lives and restore our planet. Cam has worked on several continents on most aspects of carbon markets over the past twenty years. He is an ardent supporter of the vision and urgency of the VCM+ Collaborative.
The future of the verified carbon market depends on diverse, global leadership and insight from across the ecosystem. As recognized experts in their fields, Fellows help advance the VCM+ Action Agenda and inform the strategic direction of the VCM+ Collaborative. They serve as trusted thought partners and informed voices, offering insight, perspective, and guidance on the Verified Carbon Market.
Holly Pearen
VCM+ Fellow
Holly Pearen is Lead Counsel for EDF’s Carbon Pricing team. In that role, she develops and executes high impact strategies on complex carbon pricing initiatives focusing on legal, accounting and financial market regulation and infrastructure. She brings nearly twenty years of legal experience at the intersection of natural resource and financial markets, and a background in economics, to advance and protect EDF’s climate, public health and environmental priorities
Katie Sullivan
VCM+ Fellow
Katie Sullivan is Managing Director of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), where she leads work on international carbon markets, climate finance, and implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Prior to joining IETA, she held leadership roles in environmental markets and sustainable finance. She is widely recognized as a leading voice on global carbon market policy, market integrity, and private sector engagement in climate action
Jocelyne Landry Tsonang
VCM+ Fellow
Jocelyne Landry Tsonang is Co-Founder of Nature Crest and co-developer of AFRICO2, a digital platform advancing transparency and integrity in African carbon markets. With over 11 years of experience structuring carbon and green finance projects across Central and West Africa, she has contributed to global sustainability governance including through the World Economic Forum Global Future Council on the Sustainable Use of Resources. She is a leading voice for equitable, high-integrity carbon market development that centers African perspectives and communities in global decision-making.
Keshinee Shah
VCM+ Fellow
Keshinee Shah is an independent strategic advisor working at the intersection of carbon market governance, compliance finance, and climate policy across Africa. With a track record spanning country-level advisory work, continental governance architecture, and an integrated understanding of both the supply-side systems that determine market access and the demand-side dynamics reshaping where value concentrates, she focuses on ensuring African governments are positioned as rule-makers — not rule-takers — in the global carbon markets being shaped today. Until recently she served as Director at the Climate Action Platform Africa.
John Mwakima
VCM+ Fellow
John Mwakima is a Kenyan climate governance and community development practitioner, strategic communications leader, and carbon market advocate with over 15 years of experience across government, civil society, and international development contexts. As Founder and Executive Director of ABCDE Trust Kenya, I work at the intersection of REDD+, biodiversity conservation, climate finance, and trusted carbon market communications, with a strong focus on advancing equitable, community-centered, and high-integrity climate solutions while amplifying Global South and IPLC perspectives within global climate discourse.
Leo Hyoungkun Park
VCM+ Fellow
Dr. Leo Hyoungkun Park is a global carbon markets architect and UNFCCC Article 6.4 Climate Policy Expert with over two decades of experience directing high-integrity climate investments and frontier technologies. He currently serves as Senior Vice President at Capture6 Corp, where he spearheads global strategy and carbon credit commercialization, having previously managed a $3.5 billion climate asset portfolio across 60 countries for the Green Climate Fund. A pioneer in national carbon architectures, Dr. Park bridges the voluntary and compliance markets to mobilize scalable, equitable climate finance across the Global South.
Mamta Lama
VCM+ Fellow
Mamta Lama is a Program Officer at RECOFTC and a governing board member of the Engagement Forum at the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), where she works at the intersection of carbon market integrity, social safeguards, and the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. With nearly five years of experience across the Asia-Pacific region, she specializes in benefit-sharing governance, Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and ensuring high-integrity carbon markets deliver equitable outcomes for those most affected by climate change. She holds an MSc in Applied GIS from the University of Sheffield and has recently completed an executive program at Yale University on corporate engagement in carbon markets.
Rosendo Pérez Antonio
VCM+ Fellow
Rosendo Pérez has been working with Carbon Offset Projects and Indigenous Communities since 2014, successfully incorporating indigenous groups to the VCM and providing technical guidance to create Carbon Offsets that integrate Ecological, Social and Economic co-benefits to implementing indigenous communities.
WariNkwi Flores
VCM+ Fellow
WariNkwi Flores is a citizen of the Kara Andean and Kichwa Andean::Amazonian Nations and founder of the Kinray Hub, an Indigenous RDI Think::Do Tank operating across Ecuador and the United States. It centers IPs&LCs as sovereign actors in climate finance, data equity shares, and nature-based solutions. An IPBES Fellow at the 2nd Global Assessment and a contributor to international biodiversity credit frameworks through the IAPB and BCA-WEF collaboration, Flores specializes in Indigenous Data Sovereignty, BioKulture Systems Design, and trans-systems negotiation conditions for voluntary carbon and biodiversity markets. Flores has represented Indigenous Peoples at international meetings such as COP16, CEIBA, and EMRIP, and publishes in the fields of natural science, political economy, data authority, and Indigenous research policy.
Molly Peters-Stanley
VCM+ Fellow
Molly Peters-Stanley is Founder and CEO of Seneca Vantage, an advisory firm focused on climate finance, carbon markets, and sustainability strategy. She is widely recognized for her leadership in voluntary carbon markets, having previously led Ecosystem Marketplace, where she oversaw the industry's leading market intelligence and analysis on voluntary carbon markets. Molly has more than two decades of experience working across climate finance, environmental markets, and sustainable development, advising companies, investors, and policymakers on emerging opportunities in carbon and natural capital markets.
Stella Napanu
VCM+ Fellow
Stella Napanu is a conservation scientist and Indigenous advocate from Kenya's Samburu community, serving as Senior Manager for Indigenous Peoples Outreach and Policy at the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), where she also provides secretariat support to the self-led Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Engagement Forum — an independent, self-governing body ensuring IPLCs have a strong voice in shaping high-integrity carbon markets. With over 8 years of experience in Natural Climate Solutions, community-led conservation, and carbon justice, she bridges Indigenous Knowledge, contemporary science, and art to empower frontline communities as equal partners and decision-makers — not just beneficiaries — in the carbon market. She brings extensive expertise in ecosystem health, rangelands management, and community conservancy governance across Northern Kenya, and is a passionate speaker and advocate for equitable, community-centered climate finance on the global stage.
Ria Mariamah
VCM+ Fellow
Ria Mariamah is a climate change and development professional with 15 years of experience at the intersection of land-use policy, finance, and social safeguards. Currently advising the Climate and Land Use Alliance in Indonesia, she focuses on strengthening the role of civil society and community-based organizations within the carbon market ecosystem. Driven by her roots in a farming community, Ria is deeply committed to ensuring that climate finance delivers both emission reductions and the socioeconomic benefits that sustain forest protection and local communities.
Tracey Osborne
VCM+ Fellow
Dr. Tracey Osborne is the Founder and Director of the Carbon Justice Standard Lab and an Associate Professor at the University of California, Merced, with over two decades of experience working on climate change mitigation in tropical forests, carbon markets, climate finance, and climate justice. Her research and practice focus on the social, ecological, and political economic dimensions of forest-based climate solutions, with particular attention to Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Through the Carbon Justice Standard Lab, she is developing a framework for high-integrity, community-led carbon projects that centers community leadership, governance, and equitable benefit-sharing.
American Carbon Registry (ACR) Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) Climate Action Reserve Plan Vivo Verra Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI)
Non Profit Standard
Setters
Market
oversight
- The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market
Members of the VCM+ Collaborative
Membership in the Collaborative reflects support for the vision of the VCM+ only and does not constitute, nor should it be interpreted as, an endorsement by the Collaborative of any member organization, by any member organization of the Collaborative, or by one member organization of another.
Philanthropic
partners
- High Tide Foundation
- Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS)
- Three Cairns Group
- ZOMA LAB
Non-profit standard
setters
- American Carbon Registry (ACR)
- Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART)
- Climate Action Reserve
- Plan Vivo
- Verra
- Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI)
Financiers and
investors
- Acumen
- Artio
- Blended Finance Group
- Blue Forest
- Change Forces
- Climate Asset Management
- CrossBoundary
- Cultivo Land PBC
- Encourage Capital
- Envex Technologies Pvt Ltd
- FSD Africa
- Wild Assets
Non-profit market
participants
- American Forest Foundation
- Arbor Day Carbon
- Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF)
- Carrot
- Conservation International
- Cool Effect
- Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator
- Fair Carbon
- Proyecto Mirador
- Terraset
- The Climate Trust
- Worldview International Foundation
Advisors
- Arden Climate
- Climate Focus
- Dryas
- EY
- Foley & Lardner LLP
- Gordian Knot Strategies
- Green Strategies, Inc.
- Herzog Law
- Integrity Global Partners, Inc.
- Nordic Voice
- Resilient LLP
- Sotora Global
Non-profit organizations
and associations
- Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI)
- ABCDE TRUST KENYA
- Beyond Alliance
- CAP-A
- Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust)
- Climate Catalysts Indonesia
- Climate Collective
- Crosswalk Labs
- CTrees
- Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)
- Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace
- Gateway Research
- Human Rights and Youth Justice Initiative (HRYJI)
- IETA
- LEAF Coalition
- Methane Mitigation Council (MMC)
- Natural Climate Solutions Alliance
- RMI
- Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA)
- The Nature Conservancy
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
- Value Change Initiative
- WattTime
- Woodwell Climate Research Center
For-profit market
participants
- aDryada
- A-Gas
- Anew Climate
- Arbonics
- BeZero Carbon
- Boomitra
- Bennu Climate
- Bureau Veritas Group
- Carbon Balance
- Carbon Growth Partners
- CarbonTanzania
- Cercarbono
- Climate Impact X
- Climate Vault Solutions
- Chloris Geospatial
- Circular Impact
- CNaught
- Deep Sky
- Earthly
- EcoRegistry
- EcoAdvisors
- EFM Investments & Advisory
- Equitable Earth
- Funga
- Global Carbon Market Utility
- Goodcarbon
- Green Assets
- Green.Earth
- Green Diamond
- Greenline Climate
- GreenTrade Impact GmbH
- Grupo de Profesionales Ambientales Mundo Verde, S.A. DE C.V.
- hummingbirds
- Indigo Ag
- Integradora de Comunidades Indígenas y Campesinas de Oaxaca A.C. (ICICO)
- Isometric
- Joias Ecológicas
- Kanop
- Kita
- Klimate
- Mitti Labs
- Native
- Nideport S.A.
- NZ Forest Restoration Ltd.
- Oneshot earth
- Pachama
- Permian Global
- Planet
- RenewCred
- Rubicon Carbon
- Sky Harvest
- Space Intelligence
- Straatos
- Sylvera
- Symbrosia
- SyndicatedCarbon
- Thryve.Earth
- Tradewater
- Trovio
- Value Network Ventures (VNV)
- Valitera
- Vibrant Planet PBC
- Virridy
- West Africa Blue
- Wovoka
- Xilva
- 3 Trees
American Forest Foundation Arbor Day Carbon Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) Carrot Conservation International Cool Effect Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator Fair Carbon Proyecto Mirador Terraset The Climate Trust Worldview International Foundation
Non Profit Market
Participants
Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) ABCDE TRUST KENYA Beyond Alliance CAP-A Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) Climate Catalysts Indonesia Climate Collective Crosswalk Labs CTrees Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Forest Trends' Ecosystem Marketplace Gateway Research Human Rights and Youth Justice Initiative (HRYJI) IETA LEAF Coalition Methane Mitigation Council (MMC) RMI Singapore Sustainable Finance Association (SSFA) The Nature Conservancy United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Value Change Initiative WattTime Woodwell Climate Research Center
Non Profit Organizations
and Associations
High Tide Foundation Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) Three Cairns Group ZOMA LAB
Philanthropic
Partners
Acumen Artio Blended Finance Group Blue Forest Change Forces Climate Asset Management CrossBoundary Cultivo Land PBC Encourage Capital FSD Africa Wild Assets
Financiers and
Investor
Arden Climate Climate Focus Dryas Gordian Knot Strategies Green Strategies, Inc. Herzog Law Integrity Global Partners, Inc. Nordic Voice Resilient LLP Sotora Global
Advisors
aDryada A-Gas Anew Climate Arbonics BeZero Carbon Boomitra Bennu Climate Bureau Veritas Group Carbon Balance Carbon Growth Partners CarbonTanzania Cercarbono Climate Impact X Climate Vault Solutions Chloris Geospatial Circular Impact CNaught Deep Sky Earthly EcoRegistry EcoAdvisors EFM Investments & Advisory Equitable Earth Funga Global Carbon Market Utility Green.Earth Green Diamond Greenline Climate GreenTrade Impact GmbH Grupo de Profesionales Ambientales Mundo Verde, S.A. DE C.V. hummingbirds Indigo Ag Integradora de Comunidades Indígenas y Campesinas de Oaxaca A.C. (ICICO) Isometric Joias Ecológicas Kanop Kita Klimate Mitti Labs Native Nideport S.A. NZ Forest Restoration Ltd. Oneshot.earth Pachama Permian Global Planet RenewCred Rubicon Carbon Sky Harvest Space Intelligence Straatos Sylvera Symbrosia SyndicatedCarbon Thryve.Earth Tradewater Trovio Value Network Ventures (VNV) Valitera Vibrant Planet PBC Virridy West Africa Blue Wovoka 3 Trees
For Profit Market
Participants
Frequently asked questions
About the Verified Carbon Market Collaborative
The Verified Carbon Market Collaborative (VCM+ Collaborative) acts as a worldwide partnership linking pioneers in research, policy, governance, and finance to develop a future-ready carbon market. We align diverse efforts, bridge gaps, and drive coordination. Our focus is moving proven ideas into active implementation.
The Verified Carbon Market (VCM+) encompasses the full spectrum of carbon pricing and credit systems, integrating both voluntary and mandatory market mechanisms.
A merger of systems is already happening. Voluntary rules are shaping new laws, and nations are folding carbon credits into official compliance frameworks to hit Paris Agreement targets. The next phase of carbon markets demands a unified base to ensure cross-market trust and efficiency. We are building the shared infrastructure needed for a global, transparent, and scalable system.
The market operates via a complex web of rules, registries, and institutions. Although vital changes are happening, they occur in isolation. Partnering with industry leaders, we synchronize efforts, pinpoint critical gaps, fast-track functional solutions, and foster unity among all market participants.
We function throughout the entire market geography. Our mission is to link and catalyze current industry work while resolving specific bottlenecks. Acting as a booster for current projects, we concentrate on unifying systemic reforms and streamlining execution across science, policy, and market infrastructure.
No, we do not function as a standard-setter. We act as an accelerator that translates high-level reforms into practical, unified action through ecosystem-wide alignment.
Current systems are the bedrock of what comes next. We work with groups like ICVCM and VCMI to harmonize efforts across the whole landscape. Our mission is to operationalize change by engaging everyone from local communities and developers to global investors. Professionalizing these systems ensures that new standards and reforms are not just written, but effectively used.
The initiative centers on five linked focus areas: Integrity-Driven Science Strong Governance Transparent Communications Strategic Finance Increased Demand These pillars constitute the essential framework required to expand high-quality carbon markets.
Our objective is a carbon market that delivers 5 billion tonnes of high-integrity climate impact and unlocks $100 billion in sustainable finance between 2026 and 2035.
We drive progress through three integrated paths: Building precise answers to market hurdles by bringing together institutional experts Guiding the testing of these models in live market settings Integrating proven strategies into the policies and infrastructure that define the global landscape
This framework serves as a blueprint for market evolution. It highlights the vital issues required for high-integrity results and directs where we apply our collective energy. It is built to offer a unified roadmap for the ecosystem, ensuring alignment between investors, policymakers, and organizations.
This roadmap emerged from deep dialogue with members and market voices across finance, community groups, research, and policy. We prioritized topics that: block trust, investment, or interoperability; demand broad cooperation; and allow for practical, scalable results.
The Action Agenda empowers market actors to pinpoint urgent workstreams, harmonize tasks, minimize overlap, and quicken the pace of high-integrity transformation. It likewise shapes our yearly strategy and helps decide where to boost current projects, enhance coordination, or spark new efforts to fix remaining systemic flaws.
Existing organizations are already pushing forward many Action Agenda goals. In these scenarios, our role is to offer support, build bridges, and scale the impact of that ongoing work. For untapped areas or alignment hurdles, we initiate time-bound, expert-led task forces to create and test new solutions.
We focus on producing functional tools that integrate into current registries, regulatory codes, and accounting systems. The actual enforcement of rules remains with governing institutions. We facilitate adoption by collaborating with policy writers and market leaders to ensure these outputs become standard practice.
Collaborative membership and participation
The VCM+ Collaborative brings together organizations across the carbon market ecosystem, including scientists, standard-setters, project developers, buyers, investors, Indigenous and community organizations, NGOs, registries, financial institutions, philanthropies, policy experts, and technology providers.
Collaborative members span both voluntary and compliance market systems and represent expertise across global geographies.
The Collaborative includes a rapidly growing network of organizations from across the global carbon market ecosystem. Membership continues to expand as additional organizations join in support of the Collaborative’s shared vision for a high-integrity, equitable, and scalable verified carbon market. See the current list of Collaborative members here.
No. Membership reflects support for the VCM+ Collaborative vision and objectives. It should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any individual organization, project, or market activity by the Collaborative or by other members.
Organizations can engage with the Collaborative by joining as members, participating in technical working groups and expert sprints, partnering on implementation and pilots, or supporting catalytic funding of activities across the Collaborative’s five pillars.To learn more and get involved, contact us here.
Carbon markets and market reform
Climate finance is a critical infrastructure for enabling large-scale mitigation, resilience, and sustainable development. Carbon markets play an important role in directing capital toward emissions reductions and removals, creating financial incentives for climate action, and expanding participation from both public and private sector actors.
As one of the most effective mechanisms of channeling climate finance at a global scale, carbon markets represent a significant opportunity to accelerate mitigation and adaptation investment and infrastructure.
By creating interoperable systems for pricing, trading, and financing greenhouse gas mitigation, internationally connected carbon markets can also support carbon pricing. across jurisdictions.
The next several years represent a critical window for building internationally aligned systems for carbon markets as countries implement Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, governments explore integration of carbon credits into compliance systems, and demand for high-integrity climate finance continues to grow.
Many of the concerns associated with early carbon markets were valid and reflected gaps in the ecosystem across infrastructure, governance, and scientific rigor — pillars crucial for integrity at scale.
In response to external and internal feedback, the market has undertaken significant reforms across standards development, scientific research, monitoring technologies, and market governance. The Collaborative focuses on accelerating and coordinating those reforms to improve transparency, integrity, and climate impact across the market.
Scale and integrity are interconnected. Scaling high-integrity markets requires strong scientific methodologies, standardized contracts, interoperable data systems, transparent registries, and clear legal and financial frameworks. These systems both improve integrity and enable greater investment and market participation.
It is crucial that the verified carbon market is accessible to Indigenous Peoples, local communities, underrepresented market participants, and smaller project developers. The Collaborative advances this high-integrity accessible market by supporting capacity building and technical assistance, access to data and tools, financing structures that help reduce early-stage project risk, and enabling policy environments. The Collaborative also works to improve transparency and strengthen collaboration between governments, philanthropies, investors, and local stakeholders.
We also serve as a platform to elevate and amplify diverse global voices and initiatives helping shape the future of carbon markets, such as our VCM+ Fellows Program.