The Nordic Dialogue on Voluntary Compensation (“the Dialogue”) aimed to inform Nordic and international stakeholders on using carbon credits to voluntarily compensate for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as part of non-state actors’ efforts towards and beyond carbon neutrality.

Specifically, the Dialogue aimed to promote the high integrity, coherence and transparency of the voluntary use of carbon credits and related claims. A high-integrity carbon credit represents a real, additional and permanent emission reduction or removal (“mitigation outcome”) achieved outside of an actor’s boundaries or value chain. They can either help host countries in achieving their existing mitigation targets or help to reduce global net emissions above and beyond countries’ targets. Voluntary users of carbon credits may make public claims about contributing to national targets, offsetting the carbon footprint of their operations or products, or supporting global ambition-raising.

The Dialogue fostered a common understanding of key issues and concepts and alignment with the principles and long-term goals of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Dialogue brought Nordic public and private actors together to co-create recommendations and action points for a Nordic best practice approach to the voluntary use of carbon credits, drawing on and complementing relevant international and national guidance and standards.

The Dialogue was managed by Perspectives Climate Research GmbH and facilitated by an international team of leading climate experts from Perspectives Climate Research, IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Carbon Limits and Tyrsky Consulting. The Dialogue was funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Groups for Climate and Air (NKL) and Environment and Economy (NME).