Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) allow companies, individuals and organizations to purchase carbon credits to offset their greenhouse gas emissions and meet climate goals. While the intent is climate mitigation, VCMs have been criticized for poor regulation, weak accountability, and inconsistent and sometimes harmful social and ecological outcomes.
Mongabay has a long history of reporting on the real-world impacts of carbon offset projects in various global contexts. For one professional working on risk and project integrity within the VCM sector — with over a decade of experience spanning tropical ecology, renewable energy, urban development, and carbon capture — Mongabay’s journalism has become a key tool for conducting deeper, more holistic assessments of carbon offset projects.
Vishnu Sunil Kumar often turned to Mongabay’s on-the-ground journalism to uncover both the issues and positive outcomes of these projects. Rather than relying solely on traditional metrics like carbon accounting and biomass, he evaluated projects through the lens of environmental justice, Indigenous rights and gender dynamics, factors he said are “often overlooked in pursuit of the global north’s net-zero ambitions.” Mongabay’s reporting offered a critical lens for understanding the cultural, social and environmental dimensions of carbon offsetting.
In conversations with Mongabay, Kumar explained how the news team’s reporting helped him identify project risks, understand the lived realities of affected communities, and decide how those risks might be assessed or mitigated.
A recurring theme in the stories Kumar cited was the complex tradeoffs within the renewable energy sector, particularly where climate benefits intersect with ecological and social impacts on the ground. Three Mongabay India stories explored how wind farms, despite their climate benefits, can have unintended ecological and social consequences. In the states of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the critically endangered great Indian bustard faces increasing mortality from collisions with wind turbines and transmission lines, prompting official calls for mitigation. In the state of Karnataka, researchers found that bird and mammal diversity was lower in areas with wind turbines. And in the state of Tamil Nadu, a long-term look at the country’s largest onshore wind farm revealed tensions between economic benefits and the decline of agriculture and traditional livelihoods.
