Researching for Forum's report on Making voluntary carbon markets work for the poor, I was struck by the tremendous passion and excitement of people who see poor people benefit directly from investments in forests and in small-scale renewable energy, made possible through the voluntary carbon market.

Of course no one pretends that it can on its own deliver the massive transformation required to combat climate change. But the voluntary carbon markets can offer opportunities for innovation and for closer personal connections that we simply can't achieve with slow and cumbersome global negotiations on regulatory frameworks.

Whether it's a story of a family in Mexico benefiting from efficient cooking stoves that result in lower wood use, less smoky fumes and improved health; or a family in India using solar lighting systems that enable children to study, and parents to generate additional workstreams; or protection of a bio-diverse forest in Indonesia on which many thousands of families depend – all of the stories illustrate lives being changed. Together they make up a market that grew fourfold last year.

Of course there are challenges. Not all projects deliver carbon reductions and social development, and the growth of robust standards is an important part of ensuring that people can retain confidence in the market. Local communities seldom have negotiating power so there is scope for unequal deals and exploitation and this needs to be carefully monitored as the market grows and develops. Investment in preventing emissions from deforestation and degradation has its own set of issues, around land and carbon rights, the permanence of the forest and additionality. But an enormous amount of work has been done to find solutions because people on the ground can see the importance of these activities.

And the voluntary carbon market has to be seen in context. Offsets can only ever be valuable if they are used as the final part of a carbon reduction strategy and not as some kind of short cut. Perhaps in a few years' time we will have tighter regulation and there will be less need for a voluntary carbon market. But all the evidence shows that, in the meantime, they do have a major role to play in carbon reduction and in creating global connections, and deserve our discerning support.

Download 'Making voluntary carbon markets work for the poor' here.