Tencent, CATL back coalition for better carbon credits

Tencent and battery maker CATL joined the Action for a Resilient Climate Coalition, a Singapore nonprofit launched on May 19 to support demand for higher-quality carbon credits.

Other members include Mitsubishi, Vale, and Osaka Gas, and the group targets joint purchases of at least 10 million metric tons of credits by 2030.

Corporate buyers bought 153.5 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent credits in 2025, the lowest since 2020, according to BloombergNEF as greenwashing concerns and doubts about project quality weighed on demand.

The coalition will also work with the Symbiosis Coalition, which is backed by Google, Meta, and Microsoft and aims to buy 20 million tons of nature restoration carbon credits by 2030.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Tencent’s credit buying plans support its place in the new coalition

Tencent joined with a clear target to retire about 1 million metric tons of carbon credits each year by 2030 to offset emissions that are hard to cut 1.
It already has sizable purchase plans, including an option for 1 million credits from Temasek-backed climate investor GenZero, which hosted the launch event, plus a long-term agreement for 3 million tonnes of nature-based carbon removals from Catona Climate, a carbon project developer 2, 3.
The coalition has support from Enterprise Singapore, a Singapore government agency, and aims to pool company demand for “high-integrity” carbon credits to help fund early climate projects in Asia 2, 4.

Buyer groups are emerging to repair a broken carbon market

The coalition fits a broader shift as companies move from solo purchases to joint buying groups, with some using an advance market commitment (AMC) model to lock in future demand for climate projects 5.
Tech companies have already put this approach to work. Frontier, a carbon removal buying group started by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta and McKinsey, has pledged more than US$1 billion for permanent carbon removal from 2022 through 2030 5.
These alliances may split the market in two, since they favor “high-integrity” credits tied to standards from groups such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), which sets quality benchmarks for carbon credits. That could leave weaker projects with less funding and speed up a shakeout 2.