In this week's edition, we discuss the U.S.
government's proposed guidelines for the ever-controversial
voluntary carbon markets. In the EU, ESMA published a report of its
findings on greenwashing in the marketing materials of MiFID II
instruments, and we look at a report which analyses the extent to
which green bonds align with the EU Taxonomy.
U.S. Government Publishes Guidelines for Voluntary Carbon
Markets
On May 28, 2024, the Biden-Harris Administration
launched a new set of standards to advance the
responsible development of voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) in an
effort to increase confidence in a market that is often criticized
for a lack of transparency and effectiveness. VCMs provide a
marketplace for companies and individuals to purchase carbon
offsets, which are used to cancel out the impact of
climate-affecting activities. Such activities can include, for
example, air travel where the carbon emitted by those journeys can
be offset by funding projects
