Jin Chen

The carbon credit market is a system designed to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. It allows companies or countries that emit carbon dioxide (CO2) or other greenhouse gases to buy “credits” that permit them to release a certain amount of emissions. These credits can either be mandatory, regulated by law, or voluntary, where companies choose to buy them to offset their environmental impact. By allowing businesses to offset their emissions, carbon markets help bridge the gap between necessary action and available financial resources, while encouraging investment in projects that promote sustainability and reduce global emissions.

Storybench recently had the opportunity to interview the author Gwyneth Chang behind “Clearing the Air: Questioning Singapore’s Carbon Credits Decisions,” an insightful article published on the Kontinentalist website. The piece discuss the complexities of Singapore’s carbon credit market and raises important questions about the effectiveness of voluntary carbon trading systems.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What inspired you to focus on the Singapore carbon trading market in your story?

“I was approached by people from Earth Journalism Network, who had started a community of environmental journalists to talk about carbon credits. Kontinentalist often receives partnership requests from academics or organizations to help tell their stories and highlight their causes. Regarding the carbon credits topic, it was something new for us to cover. While I follow environmental ethics news, I found the carbon trading market unfamiliar. I knew the basics but also recognized the complexities and uncertainties involved.

It seemed important to create an explainer because if I, someone who follows environmental news, wasn’t very familiar with it, I assumed most readers wouldn’t be either. This led us to focus on presenting the topic in our own storytelling style.”

How do you approach covering complex topics like carbon credits in a way that resonates with a broad audience?

At Kontinentalist, we primarily use data visualizations, infographics, and interactive elements, tied together with concise writing. For the carbon credit story, which is one of the more complex topics we’ve tackled, it was essential to break down important processes and jargon, and for that, infographics played a big role. While we used numerical data, it was more important to make the subject accessible to readers by visually representing key ideas. Additionally, we made sure to structure the story in a way that flowed, allowing readers to digest the information step by step.