Graduation Year

2025

Date of Submission

4-2025

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Award

Best Senior Thesis in Environment, Economics, and Politics

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Environment, Economics, and Politics (EEP)

Second Department

International Relations

Reader 1

William Ascher

Rights Information

2025 Jack M Barrett

Abstract

Efforts to construct robust international carbon markets have repeatedly fallen short of their climate and sustainable development objectives. From the Clean Development Mechanism’s collapse under the weight of non-additional credits to the Voluntary Carbon Market’s recent legitimacy crisis, structural flaws and fragmented standards have undermined offsetting systems for more than two decades. Today, the emergence of the Paris Agreement's Article 6 mechanisms, alongside initiatives like the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), offer a critical but fragile opportunity to rebuild market credibility. The proliferation of diverging standards across Article 6, voluntary markets, and regional carbon pricing instruments risks repeating past mistakes, threatening the environmental integrity of global emissions trading. This thesis argues that targeted policies promoting standard convergence are essential to safeguard the effectiveness of carbon markets and support climate finance at the scale required to meet international goals. It proposes the adoption of a "methodology pipeline" policy wherein the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body would prioritize ICVCM-approved methodologies for accreditation. Through a historical analysis of past regulatory failures, a review of emerging governance frameworks, and a critical evaluation of current proposals, this thesis demonstrates how strategic coordination across institutions could help overcome political and structural barriers, preventing a future "race to the bottom" and reinforcing the legitimacy of carbon markets as a tool for global climate mitigation.

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