Carbon credit certification can only be carried out by accredited organizations and both types of carbon markets – compliance and voluntary – have their own standards to which they must adhere. These standards are supported by independent verification bodies to ensure that carbon reduction projects adhere to their strict offset rules. With the various carbon credit certification companies and their protocols, it can be quite confusing and you may be thinking why not have just one global standard. We hope so, but since that's not the case yet, here are the names you should know. Let's break it down by market type, starting with the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM). (Jennifer L)