---
title: "what a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out"
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-a-local-carbon-market-leaves-out
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-a-local-carbon-market-leaves-out.md
subtitle: "la rochelle, the north east, devon and moorfutures sell carbon. the water, habitat and access a place gives are mostly outside the tonne. list the place"
category: nature-finance
---

# what a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out

*la rochelle, the north east, devon and moorfutures sell carbon. the water, habitat and access a place gives are mostly outside the tonne. list the place*

A wet heath on the edge of a city keeps some carbon in its soil. It also holds rain before it runs into the streets below, keeps open ground for the birds and reptiles that need it, and gives people somewhere to walk on a Sunday. A local carbon market can sell the first of those. The water, the habitat and the Sunday walk usually sit outside the tonne.

The heath, the pond, the hedgerow, the street trees and the upland peat do that work for a city region whether or not any market lists them. A nature market is how the businesses that lean on that work find it and pay for it. A region can borrow [*ensurance*](https://ensurance.app/?from=guide) as the plumbing for that instead of building its own. Neither the market nor the plumbing is the worth of the heath.

A **local carbon market** is a scheme, usually run or backed by a city, county or region, that sells carbon credits from projects inside the region to buyers inside the same region. It keeps the money close to home. It prices one thing a place does. This post is for the council or partnership weighing one, the business asked to buy, and the project asked to list.

:::johnson
**a tonne is one thing a wood does. the market should list the wood.** Carbon can be a row on the listing. The place is the listing.

[see the places already listed →](/natural-assets?from=guide)
:::

## what a local carbon market is

The general case is in [what a carbon market actually is](/guide/what-a-carbon-market-actually-is?from=guide). The local version narrows it by geography: the buyer and the project share a region, and the region, or a body it helped set up, runs the shelf.

| market | who runs it | what it sells | the place behind it |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Rochelle Coopérative Carbone | A cooperative founded in December 2020 by nine members, including the city and Alstom | Local carbon storage with a biodiversity benefit, matched to local emitters | Forêt Bleue, its first project: 7,500 trees on 1.7 hectares |
| North East Carbon and Nature Marketplace | The North East Combined Authority with Net Zero North East England, launched 4 June 2025 | 10,000 carbon credits at launch; buyers can also fund projects | Peatland in County Durham and Northumberland, and a South Tyne sediment project |
| Devon Natural Capital Marketplace | The biosphere reports a not-for-profit tied to it launched the marketplace in April 2022 | Carbon credits; the biosphere reports that Devon County Council bought about 2,500 tonnes at launch | Not stated in the sources read |
| MoorFutures | Case-study material reports it began in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in 2011 and was later taken up by Brandenburg, Schleswig-Holstein and others | Regional certificates for rewetting peatland | Drained moors in northern Germany |
| San Francisco Carbon Fund | The city, under a 2009 ordinance | A fund that ran, not a market: it directed offset revenue to local projects through grant rounds approved from 2013 to 2018 | Projects inside the city |

Other French cooperatives have followed: Paris reports one for the city and the Métropole du Grand Paris, launched in September 2024, and Coopérative Climat Bretagne was reported in December 2025.

In the UK, woodland and peatland carbon is also certified nationally, under the Woodland Carbon Code and the Peatland Code. A code certifies the tonne. A regional market can also find the buyer. [A registry is not a market](/guide/a-registry-is-not-a-market?from=guide) covers where units are held.

## what these markets get right

Each kept the money in its region. The cooperatives gave emitters, landowners and the council one table, and gave it a legal form with members. The North East already sells more than tonnes: a buyer can fund a project outright.

La Rochelle planned for the plumbing problem. When Banque des Territoires invested €300,000 in the cooperative in 2023, part of it was for a digital platform to be shared with the cooperatives that came after. A region should not have to rebuild the pipes the last region built.

## what the tonne leaves out

Here is what a region's places do, and how much of it a tonne carries.

| place | what it does for the region | how much is a tonne |
|---|---|---|
| Lowland heath | Open habitat for birds and reptiles that need it; a place to walk | Some soil carbon, more where the heath sits on peat. The water, habitat and access are not counted in a tonne. |
| A pond | Holds water in a storm; breeding water for amphibians and insects; a place a school can visit | Carbon is rarely the main reason to fund a pond. |
| A hedgerow | Shelter for stock and crops; a corridor for wildlife; a check on soil washing off a field | Some carbon in wood and roots; the main work is elsewhere |
| Street trees | Shade and cooler streets in a heatwave; rain caught before it reaches the drain | Carbon is a small part of what street trees do; the value is where people live |
| Upland peat | Carbon held as long as it stays wet; slower flood peaks; cleaner water at the intake | Carbon is real here, and so is the water |

A market that sells only tonnes funds the peat and the planting, then has less to offer the heath, the pond or the street. The West Midlands Nature Investment Hub, a nature market rather than a carbon one, opened in July 2026 with a pipeline of tree planting, river and pond work, heathland and species projects. Not all of that work is measured in tonnes.

[What a carbon market actually is](/guide/what-a-carbon-market-actually-is?from=guide) covers what a retired credit does and does not give a buyer.

## local governments already run units for more than carbon

Two local governments already run schemes where a unit stands for what a place does.

**Washington, DC: stormwater.** The District's Stormwater Retention Credits count water, not carbon. One credit is one gallon of retention for one year. The District's in-lieu fee (a payment a developer can make instead of installing stormwater measures) acts as a ceiling on the price. Its price lock program, which agrees to buy credits at a set price, acts as a floor.

**King County, Washington: forests, urban and rural.** The county's Forest Carbon Program sells forest carbon credits. Urban forests are credited under City Forest Credits and rural forests under Verra. The first sale was in November 2020, to Microsoft.

The unit follows the service, and a region's market can carry more than one row.

## how to list the place, not only the tonne

Start from the place, then hang the rows under it.

1. **Give each place an account in its own name.** On ensurance that is an **agent**, an account in the place's own name, separate from the council's and the next project's.
2. **Describe what the place does.** Water held, habitat, access, carbon where a code certifies it. Each is a row. None is the whole.
3. **Let a buyer fund the place.** A **certificate** records that a named buyer funded named work at a named place. It is not a carbon credit, not an offset and not a biodiversity net gain unit.
4. **Keep one record per project.** If the same site also sells code credits, say so on its page, so the same tonne is never counted twice.

| | a carbon-only listing | a place listing |
|---|---|---|
| The unit | A tonne | The place, with each thing it does as a row |
| What a heath or pond can offer | Little or nothing | Its work, funded directly |
| The buyer's record | Tonnes bought and cancelled | Named work funded at a named place |
| After the sale | The claim is complete | The place's account stays open for the next buyer |

All of that is live today: groups, agents, certificates (suggested, then created after review), proceeds on a split, and natural assets with a stated value, as on [the natural assets page](/natural-assets?from=guide). A card or invoice checkout for a council or business buyer is not live; how a buyer pays is scoped at contact, and a project is listed after review.

A region's market on ensurance is also linked to every other market in the protocol, so no region goes alone: its coins pair with `$ENSURE`, and its projects show on the same [markets page](/markets?from=guide) as every other group's. The links are live; the depth between markets is still early.

## what this means for each reader

**The region.** If carbon is selling, keep selling it. Add the rows the tonne leaves out, so the heath and the pond have a way to be funded too. [The hub post](/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city?from=guide) has the whole map.

**The business.** If a claim needs tonnes, buy tonnes under a code. For the place you depend on, fund the place. [Why a business funds nature in its own region](/guide/why-a-business-funds-nature-in-its-own-region?from=guide) is written for you.

**The project.** List the whole site, not only its carbon.

## frequently asked questions

### what is a local carbon market?

A scheme, usually run or backed by a city, county or regional body, that sells carbon credits from projects inside a region to buyers in the same region. La Rochelle's cooperative and the North East marketplace are two examples.

### what does a local carbon market leave out?

The places whose main work is not carbon: heaths, ponds, hedgerows, street trees, and the water and habitat even a carbon-rich peatland supplies. A market that lists the place can fund those too.

### is an ensurance certificate a carbon credit?

No. It is a record that a named buyer funded named work at a named place. It is not a carbon credit, an offset or a biodiversity net gain unit, and it cannot be used to claim offsetting.

## next steps

See the [places with a stated value](/natural-assets?from=guide), or the certificates on [specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide). Councils and combined authorities can start from [the governments page](/solutions/governments?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market). To talk through your region's pipeline, [tell us the places](/contact?from=guide&topic=launch-your-own-nature-market).

## sources

- [La Rochelle carbon cooperative, Banque des Territoires](https://banquedesterritoires.fr/transformation-ecologique-la-banque-des-territoires-investit-dans-la-cooperative-carbone-de-la): founding, Forêt Bleue, the 2023 investment and shared platform
- [Carbon cooperative, Climate Chance](https://climate-chance.org/en/best-pratices/carbon-cooperative): the La Rochelle model
- [La Coopérative Carbone, Paris](https://paris.fr/pages/la-cooperative-carbone-nouvel-outil-pour-accelerer-la-transition-ecologique-du-territoire-28431): the Paris and Grand Paris cooperative
- [Coopérative Climat Bretagne, Banque des Territoires](https://banquedesterritoires.fr/le-lancement-de-la-scic-cooperative-climat-bretagne): the Brittany cooperative
- [North East Carbon and Nature Marketplace launch, North East Combined Authority](https://northeast-ca.gov.uk/news/environment-coastal-and-rural/north-east-mayor-launches-uk-s-first-combined-authority-led-carbon-and-nature-marketplace): launch date, credits and projects
- [Devon Natural Capital Marketplace launch, North Devon Biosphere](https://northdevonbiosphere.org.uk/news/the-natural-capital-marketplace-launches-with-a-large-carbon-offset-order-from-devon-county-council): launch and the council's first order
- [MoorFutures case study, Natur ist unser Kapital](https://www.natur-ist-unser-kapital.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/fallbeispiel_moorfutures-1.pdf): regional peatland certificates in Germany
- [San Francisco Carbon Fund grant awards, SF Environment](https://sfenvironment.org/policy/resolution-approving-san-francisco-carbon-fund-grant-awards-2): the city fund and its grant rounds
- [West Midlands Nature Investment Hub, WMCA](https://wmca.org.uk/what-we-do/environment-energy/natural-environment/west-midlands-nature-investment-hub/): the hub's first pipeline
- [Stormwater Retention Credit trading, DC Department of Energy and Environment](https://doee.dc.gov/src) and [the price lock program FAQ](https://doee.dc.gov/service/faq-src-price-lock-program): the credit unit, the ceiling and the floor
- [Forest Carbon Program, King County](https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/dnrp/nature-recreation/environment-ecology-conservation/forestry-services/forest-carbon-program): urban and rural credits and the first sale

## the series

1. [how to launch a nature market for your city or region](/guide/how-to-launch-a-nature-market-for-your-city?from=guide)
2. [what is inside a nature marketplace](/guide/what-is-inside-a-nature-marketplace?from=guide)
3. **what a local carbon market is, and what it leaves out** (you are here)
4. [why a business funds nature in its own region](/guide/why-a-business-funds-nature-in-its-own-region?from=guide)
5. [you do not have to build the marketplace](/guide/you-do-not-have-to-build-the-marketplace?from=guide)
6. [launch your region's nature market on ensurance](/guide/launch-your-regions-nature-market-on-ensurance?from=guide)
7. [already run a nature market? add ensurance beside it](/guide/already-run-a-nature-market-add-ensurance-beside-it?from=guide)