Supporting you through the coronavirus crisis

Gold Standard and SustainCERT are committed to keeping project beneficiaries, developers, and VVBs safe during this unprecedented health crisis.
 
We acknowledge the potential disruptions faced by Gold Standard projects in light of restricted global movement, especially for important upcoming milestones like stakeholder consultations, scheduled monitoring activities and on-site validation or verification audits by VVBs. We are carefully considering the most updated COVID-19 prevention guidelines to provide the support you need.
 
In the immediate term, this means case-by-case considerations. We advise you to continue taking all reasonable steps to comply with all Gold Standard rules that do not rely on site visits and to reach out to SustainCERT for any necessary deviation requests. In parallel, our Technical Advisory Committee has fast-tracked guidance on measures that can be adopted by projects to ensure that they are not adversely impacted during the duration of this crisis, while still maintaining credibility and rigour. This guidance will be based on a project’s status, commitments and on-ground circumstances and will provide alternatives for:
 

• Stakeholder consultation meetings
• Monitoring activities
• VVB audits
• Submission deadlines

 
This guidance and associated deadlines/timelines will be published as soon as possible. Queries on applicability can be sent to covid19@goldstandard.org.
 
We extend our support to all of you doing important climate + development work around the world and wish each of you good health as we all weather this storm together. 
 
Stay safe, stay healthy.

Rule updates + clarifications

• VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION BY SAME VVB – Gold Standard introduces flexibility for Project Developers, Coordinating & Managing entities and Validation & Verification Bodies (VVBs) wishing to validate and verify their projects/programmes by the same VVB. This rule update allows the same VVB to perform the validation & verification for a given project seeking Gold Standard for Global Goals certification. Gold Standard projects/PoAs registered with previous versions of the Standard may also apply this rule update.

• ELIGIBILITY OF GRID CONNECTED WASTE TO ENERGY AND BIOMASS BASED PROJECTS – This confirms the eligibility requirements for grid-connected waste to energy and biomass based projects in light of the recently released eligibility criteria for grid-connected renewable energy projects. Waste to energy projects that involve biogas to electricity generation are exempt from the new eligibility criteria; however, renewable biomass, (i.e., biomass residue and/or biomass from dedicated plantations) based power projects shall demonstrate eligibility as per paragraph 2.1.3 of Renewable Energy Activity Requirements
   
• ELIGIBLE RETROACTIVE CREDITING PERIOD FOR COMBINED DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATION – This clarifies that for projects undergoing combined validation/verification, the maximum period for Retroactive Certification is two years (three years for LUF activities).
   
• LAND USE & FORESTS (LUF) ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS – This confirms that Annex B “Requirements for A/R smallholder & microscale projects ” applies to all eligible LUF projects including Afforestation & Reforestation Projects and Agriculture Projects.
   
• EDITORIAL CHANGES IN PERFORMANCE SHORTFALL GUIDELINES – Editorial changes have been made to remove errors in the Performance Shortfall Guidelines. 
   
• CLARIFICATION ON ELIGIBILITY OF PROJECT INVOLVING GMOs – Clarification that Gold Standard projects shall not introduce GMO crops, trees, and/or livestock; however, the continuation of use of GMOs already in place in the baseline is allowed.

• SIMPLIFIED METHODOLOGY FOR EFFICIENT COOKSTOVES – This update corrects editorial mistakes in the methodology draft and calculation tool, and updates the reference to the correct testing protocol to determine project stove efficiency. 
   
• SOC ACTIVITY MODULES APPROVAL PROCEDURE – This provides guidance for the development and approval procedure of SOC Activity Modules with a non-exhaustive list of eligible SOC activities for future SOC methodology modules.
   
• ROTATION FORESTRY PROJECTS UNDER THE AFFORESTATION/REFORESTATION (A/R) METHODOLOGY – This provides further clarity on assessment criteria to be considered for A/R rotation forestry projects and a guiding tool for long-term CO2-fixation calculation in rotation forestry projects.

• TERMS OF REFERENCE: TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE – These update the Terms of Reference for the Gold Standard Technical Advisory Committee.

Gold Standard Strategy 2025

We have recently published the Gold Standard Strategy 2025, shared the key implications for different stakeholders, and hosted a webinar to elaborate and field questions.

View the newsletter>>

Listen to the webinar>>
 

Opportunities in Soil Organic Carbon

The Gold Standard Strategy 2025 includes a focus on nature based climate solutions, with a specific focus on sequestration or ‘carbon removals.’ We will host a webinar to provide more details about the recently published Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) Framework Methodology.

• Introduction and trends in scientific need and market demand for removals 
• Overview of the Framework Methodology
• Process for approval of an Activity Module and eligible SOC activities
• How the SOC Framework Methodology differs from the ValueChange SOC guidance for corporate Scope 3 emissions.

2019 Market Report 

• Another year of high issuances, with 18.2 million emission reductions issued from 49 different countries. This included 13.9 million voluntary Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) and 4.3 million Gold Standard labelled Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) with growth primarily from wind, cookstoves and household biogas projects. 
• Record high voluntary retirements in 2019 with 12.4 million emission reductions retired — 31% increase over 2018.