South Korea is enacting new legislation to create a voluntary carbon market that allows small and midsize businesses to trade greenhouse gas reduction credits. The move aims to broaden participation beyond the large corporations already covered by the national emissions trading scheme. A key challenge is the lack of domestic verification institutions. While Japan has scaled its market by using domestic verifiers with standards tailored to its industrial base, South Korea currently relies on foreign evaluators, which may create cost and complexity barriers for smaller firms.
