How Carbon Credits Are Being Audited for Integrity

Carbon credits are facing a credibility crisis — and 2026 is the year the auditing system gets teeth. Lucas and Luna drill into the new Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market standards that took full effect this March, examining a specific case: how one reforestation project in Kenya had its credits retroactively cut by 40 percent after an audit revealed over-counting. They trace the mechanics of buffer pools, third-party verification, and the growing role of satellite monitoring. Luna asks whether the new rules are strong enough to prevent greenwashing, and Lucas walks through the numbers: the voluntary market was worth roughly $2 billion last year, but a 2025 study from the University of California found that nearly 30 percent of offset credits from nature-based projects did not represent real emission reductions. The conversation lands on what this means for companies buying credits and for the price trajectory of high-integrity carbon. A focused, numbers-driven look at the infrastructure behind the carbon market's integrity push. #CarbonCredits #CarbonMarkets #VoluntaryCarbonMarket #ClimatePolicy #CarbonAudit #IntegrityCouncil #ICVCM #CarbonOffset #Greenwashing #ClimateFinance #Sustainability #CarbonAccounting #Reforestation #Kenya #CarbonPricing #Economics #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo