Six markets, one test: can the tonne be traced?

Australia runs one of the most tightly governed carbon schemes in the world. ACCUs are issued by the Clean Energy Regulator, and demand is anchored by the reformed Safeguard Mechanism, which forces the country's largest industrial emitters to cut against declining baselines each year.

This is where EGB operates directly: quantifying abatement, engaging the regulator's framework, and certifying credits from real projects — solar, waste recovery, demand reduction. It's the market we know from the inside, not from a terminal.

A record 21.64 million ACCUs were issued in 2025 — up 15% on 2024 — with compliance buyers now the dominant source of demand.

Britain's voluntary market centres on the Woodland Carbon Code — the government-backed quality standard for UK woodland projects, now at version 3 (January 2026) — and its sister Peatland Code. UK-grown units appeal to British buyers who want their offsetting visible, local and government-assured.

On the compliance side, the UK ETS caps power, industry and aviation. We help UK organisations work out which side of that line they sit on, and source units accordingly.

The Woodland Carbon Code moved to version 3.0 in January 2026, tightening alignment with international integrity frameworks.

The United States hosts the deepest pool of voluntary credits anywhere: projects verified under Verra's VCS, Gold Standard, the American Carbon Registry and the Climate Action Reserve. Quality varies enormously — which is exactly why brokered access with document-first screening matters more here than in any other market.

Compliance demand runs through California's cap-and-trade programme and the RGGI power-sector market in the northeast. Aviation demand under CORSIA is scheduled to become mandatory for member states from 2027, which most analysts expect to tighten supply of eligible units.

We screen US registry credits project by project. A registry listing is a starting point, not a verdict.

The EU ETS is the world's oldest and largest carbon compliance market, and European corporate reporting duties under CSRD are pulling thousands of companies into carbon accounting for the first time. Many discover they need both measurement and credits in the same year.

Our French arm, Carbone Zéro, delivers bilan carbone assessments and the ADEME labellisation pathway for French organisations — measurement and Scope 1–3 reporting done under the national framework, connected to the group's certification engine.

Carbone Zéro reached its own carbon neutrality through internal reductions plus purchased compensation — we run our own model on ourselves.

New Zealand has operated a national ETS since 2008 — one of the longest-running in the world — with forestry at its core. For buyers wanting exposure to a mature, single-jurisdiction scheme in the Asia-Pacific, NZUs are a clean instrument with a long price history.

Proximity matters: our Melbourne operation gives us working familiarity with Australasian counterparties and time zones.

Article 6 of the Paris Agreement is turning carbon into a country-to-country market: governments trading mitigation outcomes directly, with corresponding adjustments to keep the accounting honest. The first bilateral deals are done; the 6.4 crediting mechanism is standing up its pipeline.

We track this market because it will reshape all the others — compliance-grade international units will compete with today's voluntary supply. When clients want early positioning, we advise on what's real now versus what's still a press release.

Our rule for emerging markets is the same as for established ones: no traceable paper, no trade.