9 February 2023

SDG claims in the VCM: 2022 insights

Dr Nick Atkinson

Chief Science Officer

Cara Howse

Research Analyst

Torrey Sanseverino

Research Associate

14 min

SDG claims are common in the VCM yet their influence on the market is not widely researched. This report is the first of its kind. We investigate the trends and potential influence that SDG claims may have on price with data acquired from registries, data from Xpansiv CBL market, and our own data analytics. SDG claims have increased in commonality for both issued and retired credits from 2015 to 2022. A more focused analysis on 2022 reveals that SDG claims have a positive influence on price per credit. However, this influence is marginal for credits from NBS sector projects. This analysis provides a top level overview of SDG claims in the market for 2022. More can be explored on the extent of the influence SDG claims have on the market.

Click here to download the summary report

Key Takeaways:

1. SDG claims are growing in popularity in the VCM; issuances and retirements of credits with SDG claims trended higher since 2015. Over half of all projects issuing credits made SDG claims in 2022.

2. The presence of SDG claims overall appears to positively influence carbon credit prices in 2022, however this is more evident for non-NBS credits than for NBS sector projects.

3. The most commonly claimed SDGs in 2022 are 13 (Climate action), 7 (Affordable & clean energy), and 8 (Decent work and economic growth).

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Read more from BeZero Carbon:

24 November 2022
Interpreting SDG claims in voluntary carbon projects
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SDG 14 & 15 report
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22 September 2022
SDG Declarations Lifecycle Report
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