Carbon insurance

Improve investor confidence and financially protect your carbon project

Get in touch

Get in touch today

Contact us

Protecting the future of climate finance

As the global economy accelerates its transition to net zero, carbon markets are playing a critical role in financing climate action. But with opportunity comes risk. At Howden we have seasoned industry experts with both project finance and project development experience who can help clients understand risks across the carbon credit lifecycle and develop bespoke insurance solutions to transfer those risks.

Whether you're transacting in compliance or voluntary markets, carbon insurance provides the trust and resilience needed to scale climate solutions.

Supporting international aviation through CORSIA-eligible credits

Find out more

Carbon insurance is essential for:

  • Project developers

    Safeguarding capital, future revenue protection and increasing the value of your credits

  • Investors

    Ensuring the integrity of carbon assets, enhancing the bankability of carbon-linked investments and de-risking portfolios.

  • Corporates

    Supporting ESG commitments with confidence in the quality and permanence of credits.

Project developers

Carbon insurance helps developers protect the value of their projects and attract investment. Our Carbon team has experience in mitigating key risks, including:

  • Delivery risk: Ensuring credits are issued and delivered as expected
  • Reversal risk: Covering potential carbon loss from events like wildfire or drought
  • Legal & title risk: Validating ownership and registration of credits
  • Natural catastrophe: Protecting your assets from physical risks
  • Political risk: Protecting your project from changes in government policy
  • Eligibility risk: Protecting the eligibility of your credits for Article 6 or CORSIA.

By insuring against these risks, developers can enhance project credibility, unlock financing, and scale impact.

Insurance can also increase the value of your credits:

  • Warranties and indemnities: Back up your claims to increase investor confidence.
Carbon Insurance

Investors

Carbon markets present exciting opportunities - but also complex risks. Our team builds bespoke insurance solutions to help investors:

  • De-risk portfolios by protecting against credit non-delivery or invalidation
  • Improve returns by enhancing the bankability of carbon-linked assets
  • Build confidence in the integrity and permanence of credits

Whether investing in nature-based solutions or engineered removals, insurance supports smarter, safer, capital deployment.

ccs

Lenders

We work with the world’s leading financial institutions to develop carbon insurance products to enable climate finance. Our structures have allowed lenders to:

  • Secure collateral by insuring the value and validity of carbon credits
  • Support underwriting of loans to carbon projects with greater certainty
  • Mitigate regulatory and political risks that could impact repayment or project viability.

Insurance transforms carbon credits from uncertain assets into reliable instruments for sustainable lending.

CCS

Core products: Built for the carbon economy

Designed to enhance investor confidence, reduce due diligence burden, and facilitate smooth transactions by underwriting claims made by the project developer to the buyer.

Howden developed this product for Mere Plantations in 2024. It was awarded "VCM Innovation of the Year" by Environmental Finance.

Mitigates risks from sudden policy shifts, market closures, expropriation, political upheaval or changes in eligibility criteria. Howden has placed several policies that protect carbon credit investors against the risk of political interventions in their projects

Howden has led the way in shaping policy around the issuing and handling of credits tagged with Corresponding Adjustments. In 2024 we were appointed by Gold Standard to help them understand risks associated with CORSIA which led to Gold Standard’s successful approval by ICAO to issue eligible credits. In July 2025 we announced our partnership with Gold Standard to approve insurance policies on their behalf

Building on our collaboration with Gold Standard, in August 2025 we announced a partnership with Verra to assess and approve insurance policies that support the eligibility of carbon credits under CORSIA

Covers risk of carbon sequestration being reversed, through wildfire, drought, or pest outbreaks in nature-based projects, or due to deliberate or accidental misrepresentations by the project developer.

Howden has been pioneering reversal risk insurance since 2021. Howden placed several policies covering invalidation in the California cap-and-trade market. The first voluntary carbon market policy was placed in 2022 - an invalidation policy that covered fraud and negligence. 

Protects buyers and investors against the non-delivery of carbon credits due to project failure, regulatory changes, or force majeure.

This product can be designed for Project Developers who want to offer assurances to investors, or for investors looking for guaranteed volumes and to protect their upfront capital in the project

Protects investors against the financial risk of counterparties failing to meet their payment obligations in carbon transactions. These can be structured for:

  • Offtake agreement where contracted payments are delayed or defaulted
  • Project developers unable to repay investment due to underperformance or market disruption
  • Buyers of carbon credits failing to pay after delivery 

Underwrites the expected output of a given technology enabling investors to transfer risks associated with investing in emerging technology infrastructure

For engineered carbon projects a performance can back the expected volume or quality of credits generated by a project, supporting financing and buyer confidence

Every solution we place is bespoke, tailored to the unique risks of carbon markets

Carbon advisory

No two carbon projects - or clients - are the same. That’s why our team of carbon market specialists, brokers, and risk engineers will work closely with you to:

  • Understand your exposure across the carbon value chain
  • Design tailored coverage that aligns with your risk appetite and commercial goals
  • Integrate insurance into your broader risk management and financing strategy.

From nature-based solutions to engineered removals, from project origination to credit retirement, we build insurance solutions that unlock capital and accelerate climate impact. Our team advises governments, investors and corporates.

Example work includes Project Traction for the Singapore Government, our collaboration with Gold Standard to enable the issuance of CORSIA-tagged credits, and advising the EU’s Climate KIC Carbon Removal Fund on insurability and scalability of emerging carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies.

man typing on a laptop and writing on a notepad

Get in touch to explore how we can support your climate journey.

Carbon insurance is more than a product - it’s a catalyst for trust, transparency, and scale in the carbon economy. Whether you're a project developer, financial institution or corporate buyer, we’re here to help you navigate risk and seize opportunity.

Partner with us

More on carbon insurance

Meet the team

  • Photo of Charlie Pool

    Charlie Pool

    Carbon Advisory
    • Photo of Rodrigo Manrique García

      Rodrigo Manrique García

      Associate Director, Natural Resources
      • Photo of Thomas Kelly

        Thomas Kelly

        Associate Director, Howden CAP