Survey: how do French companies choose carbon credits they purchase?

1. Context and respondents

During the summer of 2023, we used an anonymous online questionnaire to interview professionals in charge of climate contribution policies in French private companies and local authorities (carbon and climate managers, CSR directors, CFOs, etc.) in order to gain a better understanding of the French market for voluntary carbon credits.

Among the organisations represented in the responses to this questionnaire, we find a variety of structures, from large groups such as Guerlain, Suez, Schneider Electric, Wavestone, etc., to local authorities such as the Lille metropolitan area, Strasbourg, etc., as well as smaller SMEs that have also decided to address their environmental impact.

It is important to note that the study was carried out before the launch of Qaptur, and without ever revealing the concept, in order not to bias the responses collected.

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You will find opposite the breakdown of the size of the companies represented in the survey: a mix of large companies (26%), ETIs (37%), and the remainder made up of small structures.

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We also wanted to know the volume of "carbon contribution" made to date by these companies. You will notice a significant proportion of respondents below 100 tonnes per year: the answers to certain open questions tell us that a significant proportion of respondents have simply not yet launched their climate contribution efforts, although they are in the process of defining their strategies on these aspects or, in some cases, are not yet 'retiring' their carbon credits despite the fact that they own them.

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2. What problems do French companies encounter in selecting the carbon credits they buy?

We wanted to find out more about the difficulties and obstacles faced by those responsible for purchasing carbon credits in companies. We therefore asked 2 questions on this subject, one using an open response format (respondents were asked to write a response in the form of a few lines) in order to collect all the possible obstacles without directing the responses; the other using a multiple tick box format in order to obtain reliable quantitative data:

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Here are the results of the question offering options in the form of checkboxes:

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In order to present you with a summary of the answers to the same open-ended question, we have carefully consulted the detailed answers given by respondents and extracted the main underlying themes:

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To sum up, according to these results, here are the main problems and obstacles encountered by companies wishing to make their climate contribution by purchasing carbon credits:

• Uncertainty about the quality of the credits and the reliability of their verification, particularly in the long term;
• Difficulty in finding quality projects that are consistent with the company's values;
• Difficulty in collecting clear and consistent information;
• Opacity of the market and the origin of the credits.

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3. What criteria do corporate climate managers use to purchase carbon credits?

3.1. Selection criteria

We then asked respondents about their selection criteria when it comes to buying (or would buy) carbon credits on behalf of their company.

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The two main selection criteria for carbon credits today remain:

• Project location
• Certification labels

Our qualitative discussions with corporate climate managers nevertheless allow us to qualify the label criterion: even if certification standards remain an essential "prerequisite" for the majority of decision-makers, recent controversies have weakened their credibility. These labels are therefore no longer 'sufficient' in the eyes of most buyers of carbon credits.

It's also worth noting that the relatively large number of public-sector players and local authorities in our study systematically emphasise the local nature of projects. It is hard to imagine a French administration or a community of conurbations supporting projects outside its territory... This type of player inflates the location criterion in our study, which could well be quite different to the perimeter of respondents operating solely in the private sector, particularly in the case of large groups with international operations.

3.2. Type of carbon credits preferred for the next purchase

Finally, we asked respondents to look ahead to the near future and tell us what types of carbon credits they planned to buy next:

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As you can see above, carbon projects based on natural solutions (Reforestation/Afforestation, Blue Carbon, Agriculture) remain in the majority, with a preference for French projects.

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Conclusion

ConclusionThis survey will have enabled us to analyse to date both the main problems and obstacles encountered by companies in activating their climate contribution strategy, and to identify trends in the carbon credit selection criteria favoured by the professionals responsible for this selection. ‍

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Finally, if you would like to contribute to the next survey yourself (updating the results will enable us to analyse any developments and trends), go to this online form, which you should be able to complete in 3 minutes: Qaptur survey - Your opinion on corporate carbon offsetting.