Do Investors care about the Rainforest? Evidence from voluntary carbon offsets around the world
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Allen, Franklin
Behr, Patrick
Cosenza, Riccardo
Nowak, Eric
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
We explore how investors react to firms’ biodiversity–focused activities in the Voluntary Carbon Market. The average stock price reaction of forestry carbon offsetting with and without biodiversity impact is not significantly different from zero until the end of 2022. Following a Guardian article claiming rainforest carbon offsets to be ‘worthless’ in January 2023, the announcement returns to carbon credit retirements turned significantly negative. This effect is not significant for carbon credits contributing to biodiversity conservation certified by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity CCB Standard, but it is significantly negative for other credits. Our results show that investors care about both the biodiversity impact of carbon credits as well as the climate–change mitigation integrity of offsetting activities.
Date Issued
2026-01-01
Date Acceptance
2025-09-06
Citation
Review of Finance, 2026, 30 (1), pp.321-349
ISSN
1572-3097
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
321
End Page
349
Journal / Book Title
Review of Finance
Volume
30
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Finance Association. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1093/rof/rfaf059
Subjects
biodiversity
carbon offsets
carbon pricing
climate change
climate finance
rainforest
voluntary carbon markets. JEL classifications: G11, G12, Q21, Q23, Q54
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-11-25