Who gains from saving nature
Ledger 1 : 33 — For each dollar financing nature-based solutions in 2023, about $33 financed activities harmful to nature. (UNEP)
Cases / Carbon credits · Saudi Arabia · 2023

Saudi regional voluntary carbon market auction

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
Not on record
  • The record does not name which of my species, waters, soils or forests were harmed.
What the record lacks: 2 none on record · 1 not measured See the gaps

In 2023 the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company, founded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, held a voluntary carbon credit auction. Saudi Aramco and the state electricity company were among the buyers.

2.2 million tCredits sold at the 2023 auction
At SAR 23.50 per tonne, as recorded; the primary release was not retrieved.

Status As of October 2026: the 2023 auction is documented only through a PIF release and press reporting; no independent evaluation of the credits is on record in the sources reviewed.

What?
A voluntary carbon credit auction run by the Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company in 2023. Public Investment Fund
Where?
Saudi Arabia; about two-thirds of the credits came from projects in Africa and MENA.
When?
2023. Argaam
Who?
Gained
  • Aramco and the state electricity company (SEC) — Bought carbon credits at the auction Public Investment Fund
Lost
None on record
Harmed
None on record
Why?
Not stated in the sources reviewed.
How?
An auction of credits, with the market set up by PIF; the buyers named were state companies. Public Investment Fund
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

The Regional Voluntary Carbon Market Company (RVCMC) was founded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the state investment fund. A June 2023 report by the Saudi business outlet Argaam said that PIF had set up the market and that Saudi Aramco, the state oil company, was its largest buyer.

In 2023 PIF published a release on an RVCMC voluntary carbon credit auction, which it described as the largest of its kind. The buyers named in the sources reviewed were Aramco and the state electricity company, listed as SEC. Figures recorded for the auction are 2.2 million tonnes sold at SAR 23.50 per tonne, about USD 6 per tonne.

About two-thirds of the credits came from projects in Africa and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The sources reviewed do not name the projects, the standards that certified them, or the sellers.

Aramco is itself among the largest emitters in the fossil fuel and cement sector: InfluenceMap reported in April 2024 that 57 producers accounted for 80% of the sector's CO2 emissions in 2016-2022, with Aramco, Gazprom and Coal India at the top.

  1. 2023RVCMC auction held; buyers include Aramco and the state electricity company
  2. 2023Argaam (June): PIF set up the market; Aramco its largest buyer
  3. 2024InfluenceMap (April): Aramco among the three largest emitters of fossil and cement CO2 in 2016-2022

How it looked

What was shown, beside what was recorded.

Shown

Recorded

  • Buyers named: Aramco and the state electricity company (SEC).
    Public Investment Fund
  • Aramco described as the largest buyer; the market was set up by PIF.
    Argaam
  • 2.2 million tonnes at SAR 23.50 per tonne, about USD 6 per tonne.
  • About two-thirds of the credits came from Africa and MENA projects.

Who gained

Money that reached nature, beside money that stayed elsewhere.

Reached nature or the ground

Not published
No figure published.

Gained elsewhere

Not totalled
Currency: SAR · Window: 2023. All figures cover the same period. * Estimate built from cited figures.

Responses on record

  • PIF (2023): Published a 2023 release describing the auction as the largest voluntary carbon credit auction; the buyers it named were state companies. · Public Investment Fund

In court and with insurers

Every proceeding and every insurer decision on record.

Lawsuits and rulings

No court case on record. No court has ruled on this case.

Insurers

No insurer decision on record.

What nature saw

Outcomes measured on the ground, and nature's note.

Nature's report opens this page. Below: further outcomes measured on the ground.

Credits sold
2.2 million t
At SAR 23.50 per tonne (recorded)
Share from Africa and MENA projects
About two-thirds
Projects not named in the sources reviewed

What we don't know

Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

Nature

  • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

Record

  • None on record The sources reviewed do not document the projects behind the credits, their certification or any emission reductions they delivered.
  • None on record The sources reviewed do not name the sellers or the amount received by each.

Did the harm stop?

No source reviewed records harm to nature from the auction or any step to stop it.

Who paid?

The buyers, at the recorded auction price; the sources reviewed do not say who bore any cost to nature.

Sources

Voices on record: — Company or project✓ Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

Government and regulators

Press and investigations

Connected cases

Related matters, and cases linked to this one through the same organisations, with the role each played in both.
Terms used on this page

Carbon and conservation finance

Carbon credit
A certificate representing one tonne of carbon dioxide (or equivalent) that a project says it reduced, avoided or removed. Buyers use credits to balance their own emissions in climate claims.
Voluntary carbon market
Trade in carbon credits bought by choice, mostly by companies, outside legally binding emission schemes.

Institutions

SEC
The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates securities markets and what companies tell investors.
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