The United States and the European Union (EU) are usually close allies at the world’s annual climate negotiations — but according to internal documents obtained by the Lever, tensions have arisen between the two blocs in the run-up to this year’s summit. As world leaders head to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, this week, the United States is undermining efforts to set stringent standards for a new global carbon market that would allow polluters to help fund carbon-reduction efforts to compensate for their emissions.

According to the November 8 background paper, written by an executive working group in the Council of the European Union, the United States is backing a largely unregulated, voluntary system of trading emission offsets, even though such voluntary schemes have been plagued by questionable climate benefits, harms to indigenous communities, and outright corruption. The authors write, “In our view, accepting a standard based on the [voluntary carbon market] may hinder the independence and trust that compliance carbon markets need to contribute towards the achievement of international climate goals.”

Experts say the United States is going this route, rather than backing a more stringent United Nations (UN)–regulated carbon market favored by the EU and other stakeholders, because the Biden administration is hoping private sector climate solutions and corporate responsibility will help gloss over the fact that the country is continuing to break records for fossil fuel production and is the biggest laggard in terms of paying its fair share of finance for the emissions it has wrought on the world.