Industry and NGOs push back against tighter UN carbon credit rules

Carbon credit developers, corporate buyers and several major conservation NGOs are lobbying against proposed new rules meant to protect the integrity of UN-backed carbon credits, in what critics call a "coordinated" campaign, Climate Home News reports.

At issue is how carbon credit projects calculate their "buffer pools" — reserves of unsellable credits set aside to cover the risk that stored carbon is later released by fire, drought or logging, known as reversal risk. In July, the technical panel overseeing the Article 6.4 mechanism proposed basing these reserves on new, more rigorous scientific risk modeling rather than the rougher estimates common in the voluntary carbon market.

A Climate Home News review found more than 30 organizations submitted public comments opposing the change, several with near-identical or copy-pasted text, including Apple and the corporate coalition Beyond Alliance. The UN Environment Programme and NGOs including Conservation International and The Nature Conservancy also briefed government officials from seven countries, arguing the science was flawed.

William Anderegg, a University of Utah researcher whose peer-reviewed work underpins the proposal, called it "light-years better" than current market practice and said he found it "dispiriting to see folks attack science that's inconvenient." A decision on the rules is expected from the mechanism's regulator in early October.

Reporting by Matteo Civillini for Climate Home News. Source: https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/09/08/industry-and-ngos-lobby-to-weaken-un-carbon-credit-rules-in-coordinated-push/