At the beginning of a critical decade for climate action, Gold Standard continues to believe in the role and power of carbon markets to drive finance towards high-quality projects that reduce emissions and promote development.

We are pleased now to share our next steps following a public consultation on aligning Gold Standard projects and requirements with the framework and underpinning rules of the Paris Agreement.
 
These steps are designed to ensure that Gold Standard projects can continue to drive impact and meet new and varied sources of demand over the next decade and beyond and to safeguard the credibility of the market.
 
Gold Standard received formal feedback from more than 30 respondents and held webinars and meetings with several hundred stakeholders from a wide variety of geographies and sectors. All formal feedback has been published on our website, summarised in today’s publication, and considered carefully.
 

For an overview of Gold Standard’s next steps and a summary of the consultation feedback:

Thank you for the feedback received during the consultation period. We appreciate the consideration and time that stakeholders have given to these important issues that will govern the next generation of the voluntary carbon market.

Climate impact claims
to crowd in private sector finance 

Expanding the universe of claims possible under the voluntary carbon market beyond offsetting and carbon neutrality can build on the market's success while accommodating a new reality where unique ownership of claims for beyond-boundary climate action will be increasingly limited. Rather than being a barrier to scaling private sector investment in the market, this broader claims landscape can crowd in actors for more voluntary climate action.  

Gold Standard’s Response to Taskforce
for Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Market Phase II report

Gold Standard published an open response to the public consultation launched by the Taskforce for Scaling the Voluntary Carbon Market (TSVCM) on its Phase II deliverables. Gold Standard supports the overall aim of scaling a high-quality carbon market that can drive greater levels of investment into climate action. We consider there to be a number of good ideas being proposed, yet there are also significant gaps in scope that render the mission to scale the market incomplete and, in some areas, dangerously deficient if not addressed. 

By accident or design, we are concerned that the proposals of the Taskforce fail to build for the future in several fundamental areas, and therefore risk locking in the market of the past. In particular, we share the following concerns: 

1. A disproportionate focus on meeting wishes of the demand side, without due consideration for those supplying credits, particularly in developing countries
    
2. Failure to address core issues on alignment with the Paris Agreement, in particular double claiming
    
3. Insufficient regard to different applications of the voluntary carbon market that are emerging, which risks holding back the growth of new claims beyond offsetting
    
4. A lack of provisions to value and encourage higher-integrity, higher-impact projects and activity scopes
    
5. Proposals for governance that have a danger of stifling innovation or compromising equitable market access without due care, and that seem to relax conflict of interest rules for Founding Sponsors willing to cover the body's eye-watering costs

Scope 3: The Key for Net Zero

01 July 2021
16:00 CEST | 15:00 BST | 10:00 EDT

Gold Standard and SustainCERT are hosting a discussion with the Science Based Targets initiative and companies to explore how businesses can take climate action in and beyond their value chains and credibly report progress toward their performance targets.