The Financial Accounting Standards Board voted to set first-ever requirements on how companies account for environmental credits such as renewable-energy certificates and carbon offsets, while dialing back the extent of disclosures it had proposed last year. The standard setter voted to require U.S. public and private companies to apply one model to various credits that companies obtain for their compliance programs or voluntary use. The new rule covers carbon offsets, cap-and-trade programs and renewable-energy credits. Companies obtain certain environmental credits for producing or selling products aimed at removing or reducing pollution or generating energy from renewable sources. Businesses are also granted emissions allowances and cap-and-trade credits from regulators. Companies will have to recognize an environmental credit when the credit likely will be used to settle an obligation or be sold to a customer. They will need to record the value of the credit at its cost. If they don’t expect to settle the liability, they also have to test whether to reduce the value of the credits on the balance sheet. Carbon offsets are credits companies buy and count toward reducing the overall climate impact of their activities. Renewable-energy credits are certificates regulators provide to energy suppliers when they deliver wind, solar or hydroelectric energy to a power grid. The new standard, for which FASB issued a proposal last December, is aimed at making the information more comparable for investors and filling a void in U.S. accounting rules. The board reduced proposed disclosures that businesses would have to provide on renewable-energy certificates and carbon offsets in response to concerns from companies that the requirements were excessive and could pose a competitive risk.