Report cover image

Strategic Intelligence: Carbon Offsets

Publisher GlobalData
Published Aug 05, 2025
Length 75 Pages
SKU # GBDT20326630

Description

Strategic Intelligence: Carbon Offsets

Summary

Carbon offsets are tradable certificates representing one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO₂) either avoided or removed from the atmosphere. Companies use them to compensate for emissions and support claims of being carbon-neutral or achieving net zero. Offsets can be generated from various projects, from forest protection to carbon removal technologies.

Estimates of the size of the carbon offsets market in 2024 range from $1 billion to $2 billion, with forecasts projecting growth to as much as $250 billion by 2050. However, demand has stalled since 2021 following a series of scandals. Many projects were found to be overstating their impact. For example, Apple faces a lawsuit over its “carbon-neutral” Apple Watch, which critics say relied on questionable projects. To mitigate these risks, buyers are adopting tighter quality controls such as carbon ratings, avoiding certain project types, and prioritizing removal over avoidance offsets. These practices are reshaping market pricing. Project developers must invest in transparency and monitoring technology to build buyer trust.

Scope
  • This report provides an overview of carbon offsets, a major topic within the ESG theme.
  • It includes a comprehensive introduction to carbon offsets and how they are used to offset carbon emissions.
  • It includes a guide to corporate offset strategies and advice on how companies should approach carbon offsets, along with GlobalData’s carbon offsets value chain. This has four segments: project developers, carbon validators, intermediaries, and end-users.
  • Also included is an overview of the carbon offsetting strategies of large companies across six sectors: consumer, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, and tech, media, and telecom.
Reasons to Buy
  • The carbon offset market experienced rapid growth in the five years following the 2015 Paris Agreement, which spurred both countries and companies to take climate action. Between 2015 and 2020, the number of offsets issued climbed by 236% from 67 million in 2015 to 223 million in 2020, while the number retired by companies rose by 303% from 41 million in 2015 to 166 million in 2020. The market then began to plateau. Credit retirements have hovered between 165 million and 190 million from 2020 to 2024. Doubts over offset quality have contributed to the market’s stagnation, but have also not led to any significant decline.
  • This report will help you understand more about carbon offsets and provide guidance on how to incorporate them into your net-zero strategy.

Table of Contents

75 Pages
Executive Summary
Players
Thematic Briefing
What are carbon offsets?
Judging the quality of a carbon offset
Offset quality is becoming more important to buyers
How companies can manage their offsetting risk
How companies can generate revenue through offset sales
Trends
Technology trends
Industry trends
Regulatory trends
Industry Analysis
Who is buying carbon offsets and why?
Interest in removals is growing
Case studies
Tencent combines a standard net-zero target with carbon neutrality ambitions
Apple’s “carbon-neutral” branding backfires
Google pivots from avoidance to removal offsets
Drax backs BECCS for offset revenue generation
NTT boosts offset credibility with monitoring technology
Amazon aims to restore offset confidence with its own buying service
Timeline
Signals
Venture financing trends
M&A trends
Company filing trends
Value Chain
Project developers
Carbon avoidance project developers
Carbon removal project developers
Carbon validators
Standard setters
Rating agencies
Registries
Auditors
Intermediaries
End-users
Companies
Public companies
Private companies
Carbon Offset Strategies
Carbon offset strategies in the consumer sector
Carbon offset strategies in the energy sector
Carbon offset strategies in the financials sector
Carbon offset strategies in the healthcare sector
Carbon offset strategies in the industrials sector
Carbon offset strategies in the tech, media, and telecom sector
Glossary
Further Reading
GlobalData reports
Our Thematic Research Methodology
About GlobalData
Contact Us
List of Tables
Table 1 Technology trends
Table 2 Industry trends
Table 3 Regulatory trends
Table 4 Venture financing trends
Table 5 M&A trends
Table 6 Public companies
Table 7 Private companies
Table 8 Carbon offset strategies in the consumer sector
Table 9 Carbon offset strategies in the energy sector
Table 10 Carbon offset strategies in the financials sector
Table 11 Carbon offset strategies in the healthcare sector
Table 12 Carbon offset strategies in the industrials sector
Table 13 Carbon offset strategies in the tech, media, and telecom sector
Table 14 Glossary
Table 15 GlobalData reports
List of Figures
Figure 1: A select list of leaders and challengers in the carbon offsets theme, and where they sit in the value chain
Figure 2: How companies use carbon offsets
Figure 3: The lifecycle of a carbon offset
Figure 4: Judging the quality of a carbon offset
Figure 5: How avoidance offsets are calculated
Figure 6: Carbon credit issuance peaked in 2021
Figure 7: Offset futures prices have collapsed
Figure 8: Renewables and forest and land use projects are the most popular
Figure 9: Energy and technology are the biggest buyers
Figure 10: Carbon offsets are favored by the tech, media, and telecom (TMT) and financials sectors
Figure 11: Which companies are buying offsets?
Figure 12: Carbon avoidance offsets account for the vast majority of issuances and retirements
Figure 13: Carbon removals remain heavily dominated by a small number of players
Figure 14: Tencent’s carbon neutrality plan for 2030
Figure 15: Apple’s “carbon-neutral” Apple Watch Series 9
Figure 16: Wood pellet storage silos at a Drax power station
Figure 17: The carbon offset story
Figure 18: Interest in direct air capture (DAC) was on the rise up to 2024 but may be starting to wane
Figure 19: Which companies are discussing DAC?
Figure 20: Biochar mentions have been climbing but 2025 will be a quieter year
Figure 21: Which companies are discussing biochar?
Figure 22: The carbon offsets value chain
Figure 23: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Renewable energy
Figure 24: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Household and community
Figure 25: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Industrial and commercial
Figure 26: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Forestry and land use
Figure 27: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Agricultural
Figure 28: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Carbon capture and storage
Figure 29: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Waste management
Figure 30: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Transportation
Figure 31: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Chemical processes
Figure 32: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Nature-based removal
Figure 33: The carbon offsets value chain – project developers - Tech-based removal
Figure 34: The carbon offsets value chain – carbon validators - Standard setters
Figure 35: The carbon offsets value chain – carbon validators - Rating agencies
Figure 36: The carbon offsets value chain – carbon validators - Registries
Figure 37: The carbon offsets value chain – carbon validators - Auditors
Figure 38: The carbon offsets value chain
Figure 39: The carbon offsets value chain - End-users
Figure 40: Our five-step approach for generating a sector scorecard

Search Inside Report

Pricing

Currency Rates
How Do Licenses Work?

How Do Licenses Work?

The primary function of a report license is to define how many people within a company are authorized to use the purchased report. This is separate to how a report might be delivered. Unless specifically identified otherwise, the purchase option is Single User. Below is a helpful description of that license, along with a sampling of others most commonly offered.

  • This license allows only one user to have access to and to use/read the report. It is not one user at a time or one user group; it is an individual who will be reading and utilizing the report.

  • This license allows for the entire purchasing company to read and use the report. This is the license level that would allow for a report to be placed on an internal company shared drive for access by all employees of that direct company. This license does not extend to parent or sister company use.

  • This license is designed to allow an entire department within a company full access to a report. The departmental license is a great option for companies that have more than one location and the department is spread out all over the country/world

  • This license is for companies that have one location where they want the report to be accessible by all employees within that physical location.

  • This is the most flexible of the licensing options. Some publishers will allow you to get a license for a preset number of people (typically 5). These licenses are ideal for small work groups.

License options are at the discretion of each publisher. As such, not all licenses indicated above are available for every product. If you are uncertain of the best license for your needs or would like a license that is not proactively available, please contact us and we will be happy to assist.

Head shot

Questions or Comments?

Our team has the ability to search within reports to verify it suits your needs. We can also help maximize your budget by finding sections of reports you can purchase.
Chat Now
Contact Us