In this blog, Chakravorti discusses voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) and their potentially important role to enable us to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Carbon offsets allow corporates to negate their residual greenhouse gas emissions including indirect emissions in corporates upstream and downstream value chain, commonly referred to as scope 3 emissions. While this market has been around for 30 years, policymakers have recently focused their attention VCMs as necessary step to meet our climate challenge. However, policymakers warn that purchasing offsets should not be the first step for corporates but only used after steps to reduce emissions have taken place. Some recommendations are made that are critical for these markets to scale.