How to Buy Carbon Credits | FG Capital Advisors

Notice. FG Capital Advisors is a trade, capital, and carbon advisory firm. We provide financial modelling, analytical support, and sponsor side advice around carbon credit procurement, carbon project financings, and related decarbonisation transactions. We are not a bank, lender, broker dealer, carbon exchange, or retail offset platform and do not issue carbon credits, run a registry, or distribute financial products to the public. Any carbon credit, loan, guarantee, or investment is provided by regulated counterparties under their own licences and documentation. All potential transactions are subject to KYC and AML checks, sanctions screening, credit and investment committee decisions, independent legal and tax advice on your side, and formal agreements with those regulated entities.

How To Buy Carbon Credits

Buying carbon credits looks simple on the surface. In practice, the voluntary carbon market is fragmented, standards differ, project quality varies widely, and the risk of greenwashing claims is real if you pick the wrong credits or use them in the wrong way.

This guide explains how to buy carbon credits in a structured way, from clarifying your decarbonisation strategy through to selecting standards, checking project quality, agreeing contracts, and retiring credits. FG Capital Advisors supports sponsors, corporates, and asset owners that want a disciplined approach rather than one-off marketing purchases.

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Where Carbon Credits Fit In Your Climate Strategy

Before you think about how to buy carbon credits, you need to be clear on why you are buying them. Credits are not a substitute for emission reductions. They are one tool in a broader plan that usually includes energy efficiency, fuel switching, supply chain changes, and operational changes.

  • Corporates often use carbon credits to address residual emissions that are technically or economically difficult to cut in the short term while longer term reduction projects are underway.
  • Portfolio companies and project sponsors may use credits to support transition plans, offtaker requirements, or ESG commitments agreed with investors and lenders.
  • Financial sponsors sometimes buy or support projects that generate credits as part of a wider strategy around climate-linked assets.

A credible approach usually starts with a greenhouse gas footprint, clear targets, and internal rules around which emissions can be neutralised with carbon credits, and which need direct reduction. That context drives what kind of credits you should buy and how much volume is reasonable.

What A Carbon Credit Actually Represents

At a basic level, one carbon credit represents one tonne of CO 2 equivalent either avoided, reduced, or removed compared with an agreed baseline. Behind that simple definition sits a detailed project story, methodology, and monitoring framework.

  • Avoidance and reduction credits come from projects that prevent emissions that would otherwise occur, such as renewable energy, methane capture, or cookstove programmes.
  • Removal credits come from projects that take CO 2 out of the atmosphere and store it, such as reforestation, soil carbon, or engineered removals.
  • Co-benefits may include biodiversity gains, health outcomes, or community income, often referenced through SDG contributions or similar frameworks.

When you buy carbon credits, you are buying this full package: the quantified climate impact, the project and methodology behind it, the monitoring and verification work, and the legal right to retire the credit against your footprint.

Key Standards And Registries In The Voluntary Carbon Market

Most serious buyers focus on credits that are issued under recognised standards and listed on well known registries. These bodies define methodologies, approve projects, and control the issuance and retirement of credits.

  • Standards such as Verra (VCS), Gold Standard, the American Carbon Registry, and others define how projects are designed, monitored, and verified.
  • Registries track serial numbers, ownership changes, and retirements, which reduces the risk of double counting and supports audit trails.
  • Emerging quality frameworks and rating agencies assess projects against criteria such as additionality, permanence, and over-crediting.

As a buyer, you should understand which standards your organisation is comfortable with, which project types you will consider, and any exclusions you have around geography, technology, or social impacts.

Voluntary Vs Compliance Markets When You Buy Carbon Credits

Carbon markets fall into two broad categories. Compliance markets are created by regulation, such as the EU Emissions Trading System or national schemes. Voluntary markets sit alongside them and are used by companies that want to address emissions beyond mandatory requirements.

  • Compliance credits are usually only valid within a defined scheme and are bought through that system or approved intermediaries.
  • Voluntary credits can be used for corporate claims according to internal policies and external guidance such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol or industry initiatives.
  • Some organisations operate in both spaces and need to manage overlaps, for example where the same project interacts with a national carbon programme.

When planning how to buy carbon credits, you need to be clear if you are operating purely in the voluntary market or if compliance rules also apply. This shapes contract structures, eligible standards, and how you word any public claims.

How To Decide What And How Many Carbon Credits To Buy

The volume and mix of credits you buy should follow from your carbon accounting and strategy, not from what is cheapest on a screen. A typical process includes the following steps.

  • Quantify your current footprint by scope, business unit, and geography, then separate what can be directly reduced in the near term from hard to abate emissions.
  • Set internal rules for when offsets are acceptable, what proportion of total emissions they can cover, and how this balance should change over time.
  • Decide your preferred split between avoidance credits and removals, which may shift as your decarbonisation plan matures.
  • Agree an internal carbon price or budget band for credit procurement so finance teams understand likely cost ranges.

Once this framework is in place, you can translate annual residual emissions into a target range for carbon credits and start to design a portfolio of projects and vintages rather than a one-off purchase.

Where And How To Buy Carbon Credits In Practice

In the voluntary market, there is no single exchange where all carbon credits trade. Buyers usually work through a mix of channels depending on size, internal resources, and risk appetite.

  • Direct from project developers or aggregators through offtake agreements or spot purchases for specific projects that match your narrative or regional focus.
  • Through brokers and traders that can source credits across several registries, negotiate price and volume, and help manage execution.
  • Through exchanges and electronic platforms that list standardised contracts or baskets of credits, often with clearer pricing but less customisation.
  • Through funds or structured products where exposure to carbon credits is one component of a wider investment or procurement approach.

For meaningful volumes, contracts are often documented using offtake agreements or emission reduction purchase agreements, with clear terms on delivery schedule, quality criteria, registry, and remedies if the project underperforms.

What To Check Before You Buy: Quality, Risk, And Integrity

The main risk when you buy carbon credits is paying for a tonne of climate impact that is weaker than advertised. Quality checks matter as much as price.

  • Review additionality, baseline assumptions, and monitoring reports to see whether the project is likely to deliver real emission reductions or removals.
  • Assess permanence and reversal risk, especially for nature based projects where fires, disease, or policy changes can affect stored carbon.
  • Check for double counting issues between project credits, national targets, and any claims made by other actors in the chain.
  • Look at community and environmental safeguards, including land tenure, local consultation, and any reported controversies.
  • Confirm the project status on the registry, the volume already issued, and whether credits are spot or forward.

A structured due diligence process helps you avoid low quality credits that may look cheap today but create headline risk or reputational damage later.

Pricing, Liquidity, And Contract Structures

Carbon credit prices vary widely according to project type, standard, geography, co-benefits, and whether you buy spot or forward. Liquidity is uneven and bid-ask spreads can be substantial in some segments.

  • Spot purchases give immediate delivery and clearer pricing, but can expose you to market swings if you need volume year after year.
  • Forward contracts or offtake agreements can secure future supply from priority projects, but introduce delivery and performance risk that needs careful negotiation.
  • Basket products can diversify exposure across projects and vintages, at the cost of some direct link to specific assets.

Buyers with recurring demand often move from ad hoc purchases toward a structured procurement plan with a mix of spot and term contracts, backed by clear internal approvals and disclosure rules.

How FG Capital Advisors Supports Carbon Credit Buyers

FG Capital Advisors works with sponsors, corporates, and asset owners that want to build a disciplined approach to buying carbon credits rather than chasing marketing headlines or the lowest price on a screen.

  • Reviewing your current footprint, targets, and existing offset activity to define a procurement framework that your board and stakeholders can stand behind.
  • Screening project types, standards, and geographies to narrow the field to options that meet your risk, impact, and reporting requirements.
  • Performing analytical and commercial review of shortlisted projects or portfolios, including scenario analysis on price, delivery, and policy risk.
  • Supporting negotiations with developers, brokers, or platforms on contract terms, pricing bands, and volume schedules.
  • Helping you build internal models and dashboards so finance, sustainability, and risk teams can track positions, retirements, and exposure over time.

Our role is to sit on your side of the table, provide clear analysis, and help you reach agreements with project counterparties and regulated firms that actually deliver the carbon exposure you expect.

Information We Usually Need To Review A Carbon Credit Plan

To give a useful view on how you should buy carbon credits, we need a basic picture of your emissions profile, constraints, and current activity. As a guide, we typically request:

  • A summary of your greenhouse gas footprint by scope and business unit, including any third party verification reports.
  • Your stated climate targets, interim milestones, and any public commitments or reporting frameworks you follow.
  • Details of existing carbon credit purchases, including project types, standards, volumes, prices, and retirement history.
  • Internal policies on offset usage, preferred project categories, excluded sectors or regions, and budget ranges for procurement.
  • Any planned investments in carbon projects, funds, or structured products that sit alongside pure credit purchases.

If this information is incomplete, we can still outline options and decision points, but ranges around volume, price, and structure will remain broad until the data set improves.

Engagement Scope And Fees

Our work on carbon credit buying strategies is scoped and priced case by case. Fees depend on how complex your footprint is, how many jurisdictions and project types are under review, and whether we are advising on strategy only or also supporting transactions with project counterparts or regulated firms.

  • Fixed fee mandates for review of your current carbon credit approach, portfolio analysis, and a structured procurement plan for a defined period.
  • Broader mandates for groups that want an ongoing carbon advisory partner across multiple business units, sometimes with a retainer for periodic review and transaction support.
  • Where we assist with outreach, negotiation, or structuring around specific carbon credit contracts or project financings, a success linked component can apply, always documented in a written mandate and subject to applicable rules in relevant jurisdictions.

All commercial terms are set out in a written engagement letter before work begins, including scope, timelines, deliverables, and any success related elements.

If you are planning to buy carbon credits, restructure your current portfolio, or connect project development with future credit sales, share a short overview of your footprint, targets, and any existing contracts.

We will review the information and respond with an initial view on strategy, procurement options, and whether a formal mandate with FG Capital Advisors is appropriate for your carbon credit buying programme.

Submit Your Carbon Credit Enquiry

Disclosure. FG Capital Advisors provides financial modelling, analytical, and advisory services. We do not originate, offer, or sell securities, loans, deposits, guarantees, insurance products, or carbon credits to the public and do not accept client money. Any carbon credit, loan, guarantee, or investment product referenced in our work is carried out by regulated entities under their own licences, terms, and documentation. Carbon credits carry project, policy, and market risk and may lose economic value or become ineligible for certain claims over time. Nothing on this page is a recommendation or a solicitation to enter into any transaction or to buy or sell any financial product or carbon credit. Any engagement with FG Capital Advisors is subject to internal approval, conflict checks, KYC and AML checks and sanctions screening where required, and the terms of a formal mandate or engagement letter.