The urgency to reduce emissions, protect critical ecosystems and deploy new technologies at scale to remove carbon from the atmosphere has never been greater. Without meaningful action, the impact of climate change, including extreme weather and rising seas, could reduce global GDP by around 14%1 and result in 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050.2 Despite these potentially devastating consequences, annual flows of climate finance investment in 2021 were a mere 20% or so of the estimated $4.3 trillion required by 2030.3 The voluntary carbon market (VCM) is one of the few transition finance options that could accelerate action, scale up new technologies and connect private capital to high-potential projects in the limited time available. Investment today is critical, not only to mitigate carbon emissions immediately but also to build market capacity ahead of 2030 ambitions. However, the VCM has failed to secure the financial investment necessary to scale up and innovate. Current government policies and market standards have failed to provide adequate strategic inducement to motivate boards and investors to deploy capital at scale. The VCM market, estimated at $1.3 billion in 2022,4 could grow to more than $50 billion by 2030,5 if companies begin investing more strategically today.