Luca Enriques joins Working Group on Voluntary Carbon Credits

Luca Enriques, Professor of Corporate Law, has been invited to join UNIDROIT’s Working Group on the Legal Nature of Voluntary Carbon Credits.

Luca said:

I am delighted to join this working group. Voluntary carbon markets have grown significantly in the last few years and have the potential to become an important tool to tackle climate change as states and private actors step up their efforts to achieve net zero targets. Finding a common framework for the circulation of these assets will be a key element for these markets' success.

Purchasing carbon credits is one way for a company to address emissions it is unable to eliminate. Carbon credits are certificates representing quantities of greenhouse gases that have been kept out of the air or removed from it. While carbon credits have been in use for decades, the voluntary market for carbon credits has grown significantly in recent years.

The International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) is an independent intergovernmental organisation with its seat in Rome. Its purpose is to study needs and methods for modernising, harmonising and co-ordinating private and in particular commercial law as between States and groups of States and to formulate uniform law instruments, principles and rules to achieve those objectives.

Luca has also co-authored a paper, due to be published in the University of Colorado Law Review on ‘The Voluntary Carbon Market: market failures and policy implications’