Major oil and gas companies manipulate the voluntary carbon market to greenwash operations while avoiding meaningful decarbonisation, according to a new Carbon Market Watch report, "Oil Spill: How Fossil Fuel Interests Are Seeping into the Voluntary Carbon Market Rulebook."

Shell has been the largest corporate buyer of carbon credits for the past three years, purchasing cheap, low-quality credits that create the appearance of climate action without reducing emissions.

Other supermajors, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies—spent an estimated $750 million in 2021 marketing themselves as climate responsible, using carbon credits to bolster net-zero targets and sustainability reports.

The report highlights how these companies infiltrate key decision-making bodies such as the ICVCM and VCMI, shaping rules to favour high-volume trading of low-quality credits over internal emissions reductions.

Fossil fuel trade associations also quietly lobby for weaker carbon credit standards and broader Scope 3 offset eligibility, undermining market integrity.

Carbon Market Watch warns that allowing conflicted stakeholders to govern carbon credit rules creates a conflict of interest, benefiting oil companies at the climate’s expense.

The report calls for urgent reforms: excluding vested interests from governance, increasing transparency in trade association lobbying, and prioritising genuine emissions reductions over reputational gains.

True climate action requires curbing fossil fuel influence and enforcing stricter rules across the voluntary carbon market.