What is actually traded in the voluntary carbon market?
The voluntary carbon market buys and sells greenhouse gases, and the common standardized measure is carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Therefore, if your trees have sequestered 1 ton of carbon, then they have essentially absorbed 3.67 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere. (The molecular mass of carbon dioxide is the sum of the atomic mass of one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen. This is essentially 3.67 times the mass of one molecule of carbon alone.) Six greenhouse gases contribute to climate change: • carbon dioxide (CO2), • methane (CH4), • nitrous oxide (N2O), • hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), • perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and • sulphur hexaflouride (SF6). Some of these gases are far more potent and trap more heat than others. Global Warming Potential (GWP) refers to the relative strength of a specific greenhouse gas. Carbon dioxide is considered the standard frame of reference, and has a designated GWP of 1. Methane, for example, is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and therefore
