What the voluntary carbon market has actually been buying

These two views come from the voluntary carbon offsets registry on the Carbon3 platform. Together they show where retired credits have actually gone.

Forestry credits make up about 42 percent of retirements, followed by greenhouse-gas management at about 25 percent and renewable energy at about 20 percent. Fuel switching accounts for less than 9 percent. The buyers are concentrated as well. Shell alone has retired more than 25 million tonnes, several times more than the next largest beneficiary.

Offset credits, by design, pay for reductions outside the buyer's own value chain. Insetting takes the other route. It channels the same budget into verified emissions reductions inside the supply chain, where the emissions actually sit and where a Scope 3 claim can be defended.