Demystifying Carbon Markets for Boards: Key takeaways

On 28 May 2025, we held a webinar with representatives from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), designed to equip boards with the level of understanding needed to provide crucial guidance around making robust strategic decisions about how to engage with carbon markets in a high-integrity manner.

The webinar provided key insights into:

• The role that carbon market approaches can have in corporate climate transition planning and how credible carbon credits can be integrated into credible, science-aligned net-zero decarbonisation pathways 

• The importance of prioritising direct emissions reductions across the organisation and value chain, and how engaging with carbon markets can play a part in addressing any remaining residual emissions

• The difference between carbon reduction, removals, and avoidance
  
• The different types of carbon credits and their roles in the net zero transition 

• What the EU ETS carbon market is and how it differs from the voluntary carbon market; and how carbon credits fit within current compliance requirements and policy
• What high-integrity means in relation to carbon credits and markets, and why it matters so much, and
• The crucial questions non-executive directors need to ask when companies are considering engaging with carbon credits and carbon markets.

Engaging with these issues can ensure that you have considered the potential risks, opportunities, and impacts of your current and future decarbonisation and transition plans. To explore the discussion further, watch the webinar and read the case studies below.

Speaker profiles

Guy Turner – Managing Director, Carbon Markets, MSCI 
Guy Turner is the Managing Director of Carbon Markets at MSCI, where he is responsible for overseeing the provision of investor-grade data and analytical tools designed to bring greater transparency and integrity to the global carbon credit market. With over 30 years of experience in climate policy, sustainability, and the energy transition, he is regarded as a leading authority on carbon markets.

Doris Honold – Board Member, ICVCM 
Doris Honold is a Board member at ICVCM, Vice Chair at SEFE Energy and Non-Executive Director at Encompass Corporation and Aion Bank. Doris also has more than 25 years’ senior leadership experience in international financial markets, including roles as Group Chief Operating Officer and Head of Market Risk at Standard Chartered Bank.    

Mark Kenber – Executive Director, VCMI
Mark Kenber is Executive Director of VCMI and has worked for nearly three decades on market-based instruments for environmental protection, with a particular focus on carbon markets. His previous roles include positions at Fundación Natura in Ecuador, WWF’s International Climate Change Program, The Climate Group, Mongoose Energy Ltd, and Climate Advisers. He has also served as Climate Change Advisor to the Ecuadorian Government, and is currently a board member of ICVCM, C:C Brighton and Brighton and Hove Energy Services Cooperative.