There is a lot riding on an independent body’s efforts to inject a healthy dose of credibility into global carbon markets with the aim of turning them into a climate-change-fighting force.

Early this month, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, or ICVCM, launched a 60-day public consultation for the draft of its Core Carbon Principles. These are the organization’s set of standards for ensuring the market has a steady supply of high-quality carbon credits and determining which programs for generating them should pass muster.

There’s no question about how tough the overall problem is: The United Nations Environment Programme has said annual greenhouse-gas emissions will have to be nearly halved to 32 billion tonnes by 2030 if there is any hope in restricting the average temperature rise by 2050 to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

Carbon offsets, from which the credits flow, are not a silver bullet for achieving that, and not everyone is sold on their effectiveness. Some environmentalists accuse industry of using them as an excuse for not spending the necessary capital on technology to slash greenhouse gases.

Oil prices settled lower on Monday after disappointing Chinese economic data renewed concerns of a global recession that would be expected to reduce fuel demand.

Brent crude futures settled down $3.05, or 3.1%, to $95.10 a barrel after dropping 1.5% on Friday.