Soil carbon markets in the making: power relations and matters of concern in offsetting and insetting

Simmonds, Philippa ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3929-4934, Ingram, Julie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0712-4789 and Maye, Damian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4459-6630 (2026) Soil carbon markets in the making: power relations and matters of concern in offsetting and insetting. Environmental Policy and Governance. (In Press)

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Abstract

This paper investigates emerging soil carbon markets and seeks to identify the groups of actors and power relations that constitute their structure and function. Voluntary soil carbon markets (VSCMs) are emerging globally as a key mechanism for generating carbon removals as part of climate mitigation efforts. Developments are characterised by both carbon offsetting and supply chain insetting for Scope 3 emissions reductions. Despite their increasing prominence, VSCMs remain poorly understood as socio-technical and political arrangements. This paper examines how UK VSCMs are being implemented, governed, and contested, and how they are shaped by power relations. Drawing on economic sociology and political ecology, we conceptualise VSCMs as ‘markets-in-the-making’, and extend Callon’s notion of markets as in vivo experiments by explicitly incorporating power relations. To investigate different groups’ influence on market development, we apply an adapted Net-Map methodology via 17 semi-structured interviews and a validation workshop with stakeholders involved in UK VSCMs. Our findings reveal a fragmented and experimental governance landscape and identify key matters of concern; including pricing asymmetries, knowledge gaps, opacity in insetting arrangements, and reduced agency for tenant farmers. While regulation is widely viewed as necessary to improve market integrity, current frameworks insufficiently address insetting. We argue that without deliberate efforts to ‘civilise’ VSCMs- by embedding transparency, procedural justice, and inclusive governance- these arrangements risk reproducing existing inequities within agri-food systems. The paper contributes methodologically and theoretically by advancing tools for analysing emerging market governance, and highlighting power relations underlying VSCMs.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Carbon markets, Doil carbon; Carbon offsetting; Carbon insetting; Power relations; Matters of concern; QR funding
Subjects:	S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General) > S589.75 Agriculture and the environment
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > Countryside and Community Research Institute
Depositing User:	Nick Lewis
Date Deposited:	29 Jul 2026 14:42
Last Modified:	29 Jul 2026 14:45
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16448

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