Bursa Malaysia, Verra tie up on voluntary carbon market

The Bursa Malaysia Exchange has signed an initial agreement with international greenhouse gas crediting programme manager Verra in its pursuit to establish a voluntary carbon market (VCM) in Malaysia.

By partnering with Verra, Bursa Malaysia aims to develop the necessary local foundation to ensure its eventual VCM will be a scalable platform to digitally trade standardised contracts of high-quality carbon credits, based on established rules and international best practices.

Demand for voluntary offsets is rising globally, as more companies require carbon credits to reach their net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets.

Under the VCM, businesses will be allowed to purchase carbon credits that are produced through projects aimed at reducing or removing GHG emissions, although more details on these projects were not provided.

"This is the first of many avenues that we will pursue… We will continue to work with other entities, like Verra, who have well-established methodologies to measure climate action and sustainable development outcomes," Bursa Malaysia's chief executive Muhamad Umar Swift said. "It is anticipated that the market will recognise Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) programme as one of the main standards used to issue high-quality carbon credits to be transacted."

Verra is a non-profit that manages over 1,800 registered greenhouse gas removal and reduction projects through its VCS programme that has generated more than 900mn carbon credits.

Malaysia committed to launch a VCM under the Bursa Malaysia in its 2022 budget in October last year in line with its target to become carbon-neutral as soon as 2050.

By Lauren Moffitt