SINGAPORE: The demand for carbon-removal credits generated by a Pakistan mangrove restoration project and issued in 2020 exceeded available supply by more than 50%, the Singapore-based carbon exchange Climate Impact X (CIX) said on Friday.

Carbon credits can be generated through schemes such as planting trees or protecting forests that could be destroyed to make way for development projects in the absence of any financial incentives to preserve them.

CIX, a joint venture of DBS, Standard Chartered, Singapore Exchange (SGX Group) and Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings, said it had auctioned 50,000 tonnes of credits from the Delta Blue Carbon project at $29.72 per tonne. Blue carbon refers to that stored in ocean and coastal ecosystems.

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The exchange said more than 60% of successful bid volumes were priced at over $30 a ton, with some bid prices as high as $50 a ton. However, all the credits were sold at $29.72 a ton. A previous auction of credits from the same project issued in 2021 attained $27.80 a ton last year.

Many polluting companies seek to use carbon offsets to compensate for pollution from their operations. But critics say offsets allow greenhouse gas emitters to continue polluting and do not materially contribute to reducing emissions.