Voluntary carbon offsets
Mitigating hard-to-abate emissions.
While operational emissions reductions will drive our progress toward our net-zero emissions ambition, ultimately offsets are likely to be required to mitigate residual, hard-to-abate emissions. Leveraging know-how from our experience in the compliance offset market, we have designed a flexible strategy to develop and purchase voluntary offsets, beginning in 2022. This strategy includes developing a diversified portfolio of offsets from third-party projects and funds, as well as considering our own offset projects. Our preference will be projects in countries and regions in which we operate or have land holdings. While we do not anticipate the need to utilize offsets to achieve our medium-term targets and did not retire any voluntary offsets in 2022, we are investing now to build a bank of offsets for potential use and retirement in the future.
In early 2022, ConocoPhillips sent invitations to prospective offset developers to propose investment opportunities for ConocoPhillips participation. The invitations sought a variety of project types that could start issuing offsets by 2025, including those that are:
- Nature-based: relating to forestry and land use, wetlands, agricultural improvements and grasslands or soil enrichment.
- Technology-based: relating to energy efficiency, fuel switching, abandoned well management, waste disposal and fugitive emissions reductions.
The evaluation criteria for these projects emphasize the need for durability of the reductions or removals and leakage minimization, as well as community, conservation and biodiversity co-benefits to create and increase commercial value for the projects beyond our net-zero operational emissions ambition.
We have initiated investments which will bank credits for future use in our offsets registry accounts, such as Verra's Verified Carbon Standard and the American Carbon Registry. These include carbon credit funds such as Climate Asset Management’s Nature Based Carbon Fund (NBCF). Taking a landscape approach, the NBCF looks to invest in nature-based solutions projects that restore and conserve nature in developing economies. This provides long-lasting and verified positive impacts for biodiversity and communities and offers investors the carbon credits it procures.
The NBCF’s initial project investment is in the Global EverGreening Alliance’s Restore Africa Programme, which aims to restore 1.9 million hectares of land, directly supporting 1.5 million smallholder farming families in six African countries — Kenya, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. As of December 2022, implementation had already begun in three of the six countries.
In addition to our investment in NBCF, we are separately supporting offset projects in Mexico aimed at improved forest management for future offset issuance.
We believe that voluntary carbon offsets are likely necessary to mitigate residual, hard-to-abate emissions. We continue to monitor the progress of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, an independent governance body that aims to set a global standard for high integrity, and their Core Carbon Principles. In 2024, we aligned our guidelines for company participation in the voluntary carbon market with these principles and continue to strengthen our due diligence efforts regarding developer experience, technical requirements and rigor as well as stakeholder engagements that support local communities. Our commitments also include an investment in Climate Asset Management’s Nature Based Carbon Fund and multiple technology projects including offsets from plugging orphan wells.
California Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosure
Please refer to our published 2024 Sustainability Report and the following web pages for information regarding our emission reduction efforts:
Performance metrics and assurance
In accordance with California’s Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosure Act (AB 1305): On November 22, 2024, ConocoPhillips acquired Marathon Oil. Prior to the close, Marathon Oil voluntarily retired carbon offsets and renewable energy credits (RECs) in 2024.
Marathon Oil Corporation 2024 Voluntary Carbon Offset Retirements
NAME OF SELLER | REGISTRY | PROJECT NAME | PROJECT ID NUMBER | SITE LOCATION | PROJECT TYPE | PROTOCOL | THIRD PARTY VERIFIER | CLAIM |
Everland LLC | Verra's Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) | The Mai Ndombe REDD+ Project | 934 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | Reduced emissions from deforestation and reduced forest degradation (REDD) Avoid emissions | VCS's VM009, Methodology for Avoided Ecosystem Conversion, v2.0 CCB Standard v2.0 | Earthood Services Pvt. Ltd | Reduction of company emissions |
Grassroots Carbon Public Benefit, LLC | Nature's Registry | Grassroots Carbon North American Regenerative Grazing Project | GRC_001 through GRC_006, GRC_009, GRC_11 | Texas, Colorado, Kansas, USA | Regenerative soil organic carbon Removal emissions | Regenerative Standard, SOC 1.1 | EarthOptics | Reduction of company emissions |
Ontario Power | M-RETS | Sir Adam Beck III Generating Stations | M3694 M3721 M3772 | Ontario, Canada | Renewable Energy Credit - voluntary retirement Avoided emissions | M-RETS | n/a | For environmental benefit |