What Are the Different Types of Carbon Market Data and How Can They Be Used?

Carbon markets are key to the global effort to combat climate change, allowing businesses to offset their emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, like any market today, their effectiveness relies on data.

To function efficiently, carbon markets need comprehensive and reliable data. This includes details on project types, locations, issuances, retirements, and pricing trends. Understanding these dynamics helps market participants make informed decisions and ensures the integrity of the market itself.

But what exactly are the different types of carbon market data, and how can they be leveraged by various stakeholders?

What are the specific types of carbon market data?

Registry Data

Registry data encompasses information from standards bodies such as Verra, Gold Standard, American Carbon Registry, Puro.earth, Isometric, and others. This data provides a fundamental understanding of the market's supply side.

Key components include:

• Number and types of projects registered
• Geographic distribution of projects
• Volume of carbon credits issued and retired
• Trends in project development

Project-Specific Data

Diving deeper than registry-level information, project-specific data offers granular details essential for due diligence:

• Methodologies employed
• Project implementation timelines
• Financial structures
• Community impact assessments
• Co-benefits beyond carbon reduction

This data is particularly important as the market shows a gradual shift toward higher quality projects. Our analysis shows non-anonymous buyers increasingly favoring credits from projects with lower risks, with a clear upward trend in the weighted average quality of retired credits since 2020.

Issuances and retirements

Tracking the lifecycle of carbon credits – from issuance to retirement – provides critical insights into market dynamics:

• Supply levels (issuance volumes)
• Actual demand (retirement patterns)
• The balance between available and used credits
• Sectoral and regional retirement trends

Pricing data

Perhaps the most commercially sensitive yet valuable data relates to carbon credit pricing:

• Current spot prices across different project types
• Forward pricing curves
• Price premiums for quality
• Regional price disparities
• Historical price trends

For example, our State of Carbon Credits report included analysis of ARR (Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation) projects, revealing a clear quality premium, averaging +$5 per rating band. However, significant price dispersion exists even within rating levels, suggesting some buyers may be overpaying for credits.

And this price dispersion is evident across the market. When examining four REDD projects, we found dramatic price variations even for credits from the same project and vintage offered within the same week – highlighting the critical need for transparent pricing data.

Project quality data

Companies are increasingly aware of quality issues, with more organizations screening out high-risk projects through ratings or avoiding entire project categories with known issues. With increased scrutiny on carbon credit quality, data on project integrity is essential:

• Independent carbon credit ratings and assessments
• Risk evaluations (overcrediting, additionality, permanence)
• Methodological robustness
• Verification standards

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Why this data is needed

Informed decision-making

In a market characterized by significant price dispersion and quality variations, data empowers stakeholders to make informed decisions. Being able to leverage real-time data around credit quality, pricing trends, and market movements to allow businesses to make smarter decisions that align with their strategies.

Risk management

Carbon market participants face various risks – from project underperformance to reputational damage from low-quality offsets. Comprehensive data allows for better risk visibility and management, flagging early trends or warning signs of potential issues.

Effective climate action

Ultimately, carbon markets exist to drive meaningful climate action. Data helps ensure these markets fulfill their purpose by highlighting where investment is needed, which projects are of high quality and so deliver genuine climate benefits, and how market mechanisms can be optimized for impact.

Transparency and integrity

Comprehensive data forms the backbone of market transparency. With roughly 45% of credits still being retired anonymously, transparency remains a challenge. Greater regulatory pressure from the US, EU, and ISSB requirements may drive improvements in this area, but for now, data remains essential for bringing visibility to market activity.

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How can carbon market data be used?

Staying ahead of carbon trends

Daily market data allows organizations to:

• Identify emerging project types (e.g., the growing interest in durable carbon dioxide removals)
• Track shifts in buyer preferences
• Recognize early market signals before they become mainstream

Monitoring demand patterns

Regular analysis of retirement data reveals:

• Which major players or sectors are most active in offsetting
• Quality preferences among different buyer groups
• Shifting preferences between project types
• Geographic variations in demand

Tracking quality evolution

Proprietary carbon credit project data can show evolutions in quality:

• What the demand looks like and how it changes high-quality credits versus lower quality
• How price premiums change for higher-rated projects
• How price and quality can compare between different project types

Assessing regulatory impacts

Real-time data allows organizations to understand how regulatory changes affect the market:

• Price impacts from new compliance requirements
• Shifts in eligible credit types and supply levels
• Changes in market demand following policy announcements

Understanding pricing dynamics

Up-to-date carbon pricing data provides:

• The ability to benchmark against the market for fair value assessments
• Insights into quality premiums
• Evidence of market fragmentation and how different project types compare
• Early warning of pricing directions or pressures

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How different carbon market players can use this data

Corporate buyers

Corporate buyers navigate the tradeoff between price and quality, and have to inform major decisions by what’s available, within budget and of the quality for their needs. Market data empowers them to make this tradeoff wisely.

For companies purchasing carbon credits as part of their climate strategy, market data offers:

• Price discovery: Benchmark fair prices for specific project types and qualities to avoid overpaying
• Strategic planning: Forecast future credit availability and pricing to inform long-term offset strategies and budgeting
• Quality assessment: Identify high-quality projects aligned with corporate values
• Risk mitigation: Identify potential reputational risks associated with certain project types or regions

Investors

Investors balance risk and return potential in an evolving market where project quality, regulatory changes, and buyer preferences create both opportunity and uncertainty. Market data provides the critical intelligence needed to identify growth sectors, conduct thorough due diligence, and time market entry points effectively.

For those investing in carbon projects or carbon-related financial instruments:

• Market sizing: Quantify current and potential market volumes across different segments
• Trend identification: Spot emerging opportunities in high-growth areas like durable CDR
• Due diligence: Access comprehensive data on specific projects and developers
• Portfolio construction: Balance investments across different project types and risk profiles
• Return forecasting: Model potential returns based on historical and projected pricing trends

Carbon project developers

The way the market’s heading, to secure high-quality carbon credits, more companies will rely on pre-purchase or offtake agreements with pre-issuance projects. This trend creates opportunities for developers who can demonstrate quality and reliability.

With that in mind, for those creating and managing carbon projects, carbon market data provides:

• Market gap analysis: Identify underserved segments with potential demand
• Pricing strategy: Set optimal pricing based on comparable projects and quality assessments
• Methodology selection: Choose methodologies aligned with buyer preferences and future demand trends
• Buyer targeting: Identify the most suitable potential buyers based on historical purchasing patterns
• Co-benefit valuation: Quantify the value premium associated with specific co-benefits

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Introducing Sylvera's Market Data

Sylvera's Market Data has been designed to address the critical challenges faced by carbon market participants. Here's how our solution transforms complex market information into actionable intelligence:

Designed for all market participants

Our Market Data serves the specialized needs of various stakeholders:

• For corporate buyers: Streamline procurement decisions with fair price benchmarks and quality insights
• For investors: Identify market opportunities and perform thorough due diligence
• For project developers: Understand market demand patterns and optimize project design and pricing

Comprehensive and thoughtfully curated

Get a complete view of the carbon market while focusing on what matters most for your specific needs:

• Big picture overview: Track total market volumes, retirement trends, and supply-demand dynamics across the entire voluntary carbon market
• Weekly market movements: Monitor short-term shifts in pricing, project performance, and buyer activity
• Specialized drill-downs: Focus on specific project types, geographies, registries, or quality ratings

Interactive exploration

Our platform puts you in control of your market analysis:

• Customizable dashboards: Create personalized views that highlight the metrics most relevant to your strategy
• Multi-dimensional filtering: Segment data across multiple parameters simultaneously to uncover hidden insights
• Comparative analysis: Benchmark project types, quality levels, and pricing against each other

Proprietary data advantage

Our Market Data combines publicly available information with our exclusive proprietary data that can't be found elsewhere:

• Quality ratings distribution: See how our Ratings are distributed across the market
• Pricing intelligence: Access insights from 100,000+ price quotes aggregated across 40+ sources covering over 1,000+ projects
• Premium analysis: Quantify the price premiums associated with higher quality ratings

Daily updates

While most competitors refresh their data weekly or monthly, Sylvera's Market Data updates daily, ensuring you always have the most current information for time-sensitive decisions:

• Real-time market intelligence: Stay ahead of emerging trends before they become widely recognized
• Current pricing data: Access the latest price quotes across different project types and vintage years
• Regulatory impact tracking: Quickly understand how new developments are affecting market dynamics

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See Market Data in action

Want to learn more about how Sylvera's Market Data can help you navigate the carbon market with confidence? Book a demo today.

And you can see Market Data in action in our next Live Product Demo with Head of Climate Consulting, Annalise Downey. Join us on 2nd July to see a live walk-through of how the platform can help you make smarter, data-driven decisions. Register here.