Accounting for Carbon Credits

At present, there are no specific International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) or US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), or interpretations of those standards, that relate to carbon credit markets. This whitepaper addresses key accounting questions under existing guidance for both compliance carbon credits and voluntary carbon credits.

The paper addresses key accounting issues for entities that expect to use carbon credits to offset their own emissions, those that will trade these instruments in a secondary market and those that intend to do a combination of both. The paper addresses issues relevant to the application of both IFRS and US GAAP, although IFRS is the principal focus.

ISDA encourages the International Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board to work together where possible to develop consistent accounting standards for carbon credits under IFRS and US GAAP.

Documents (1) for Accounting for Carbon Credits

ISDA Response to EC on Environmental Legislation

On September 10, ISDA, the Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) and the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) submitted a joint response to the European Commission’s (EC) call for evidence on reducing the administrative burden in environmental...

Credit Derivatives Trading Activity Q2 2025

This report analyzes credit derivatives trading activity reported in Europe. The analysis shows European credit derivatives transactions based on the location of reporting venues (EU versus UK) and product type. The report also compares European-reported credit derivatives trading activity to...

Recognition of Cross-product Netting is Critical

US regulators are in the process of making important changes to the regulatory capital framework by proposing modifications to the enhanced supplementary leverage ratio, which should help stop it from acting as a non-risk-sensitive constraint on bank capacity – a...