Enriching Carbon: Surplus Value Creation and Capture on the Voluntary Carbon Markets

Abstract

This article examines the creation and capture of surplus value in the voluntary carbon markets to show the importance of narratives and networks in justifying price. Rather than a push towards commensurability in carbon markets, it points to the emergence of profitable business models based on the enrichment of credits. Enrichment focuses not on processes of standardisation associated with commodity production, but on the creation of difference, uniqueness, and provenance. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and the marketing of a REDD+ project in San Martín, Peru, the article argues that the creation of surplus value in the voluntary market lies chiefly in the ability of vendors to create, manage, and sell narratives. A focus on the enrichment of carbon-as-an-asset thus shows that narratives and networks go beyond performativity but are central to value construction, privileging certain actors and forms of labour and highlighting emerging forms of exploitation in green markets.