In January 2023, an investigation found that more than 90% of the rainforest carbon credits issued by Verra - the world’s largest carbon credit certifier - were “phantom credits” that didn’t represent real emissions reductions. Companies including Disney, Shell, and Gucci had spent years buying offsets for forest protection that, on closer inspection, mostly wasn’t happening. Confidence in a carbon market built over two decades cracked almost overnight.

Three years on, that crisis is still reshaping how the world prices a tonne of carbon. India launched its Carbon Market Portal at Prakriti 2026 in March, and has since been registering more than 700 obligated entities across nine heavy-emission sectors. The credits are expected to be issued from October, with formal trading opening on approved power exchanges in the months that follow.