Earlier this week we communicated our road to COP26, outlining where we have prioritised our efforts and forged partnerships to catalyse more ambitious action to achieve the Global Goals. This communication provides more context on how our strategy will further support our project developer community.
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Designing carbon markets for highest impact
Our focus in carbon markets is to maximise the impact of all carbon finance, positioning markets to deliver meaningful, measurable contributions toward sustainable development and to be a tool for climate justice.
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1 - Ensure integrity + relevance: Voluntary Carbon Market Transition (VCM) Framework
With the changes that will come into force under the Paris Agreement, voluntary carbon markets will need to evolve to the new Paris framework. This unavoidable development offers new opportunities for projects to be relevant in emerging markets. With support from the German Ministry of the Environment we are developing a VCM Transition Framework to help make this a seamless, predictable process for project developers and market participants, ensuring high-integrity climate projects continue to be eligible under a maximum number of markets and sought after by buyers in the post-2020 era.
THE TRANSITION FRAMEWORK WILL FEATURE
- Requirements to ensure Gold Standard projects are aligned with the Paris Agreement and can successfully participate in a maximum number of carbon markets post-2020.
- Guidance and capacity building for transition to corresponding adjustments, as and when they are required. This includes consultations with market experts on the rules and transition requirements; building capacity for securing Letters of Assurance and Authorisation (LoAA) from host countries; and operationalising corresponding adjustments if you seek them, for example under CORSIA.
- Transition criteria and processes for existing high quality, vulnerable CDM projects.
- Registry development to ensure data interoperability for transparent transaction and reporting in a heterogeneous international climate framework as well as new impact reporting to distinguish Gold Standard projects.
- Stakeholder outreach to inform the programme design through consultations, feedback, and one-on-one meetings. And to provide ongoing support for market participants in the form of regular webinars, Q&A sessions and communications.
View the timeline for the VCM Transition Framework programme>>
We will also closely track the recommendations from the Task Force to Scale the Voluntary Carbon Market to ensure that efforts to increase the market recognise and incentivise high-impact carbon reduction projects like yours.
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2 - Remove barriers to scale: Digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)
With our official certification partner SustainCERT, we are working to pilot and scale new ways to monitor impact to get better impact data more efficiently, lowering the time and costs for project monitoring and verification.
- Piloting next generation MRV to quantify carbon reductions in renewable energy and community based projects, and removals in land use activities.
- SDG Impact Tools to more efficiently select indicators and monitor and verify your project's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This tool will be launched for public consultation and feedback in January 2021.
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IMPLEMENT CORPORATE AMBITION
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High-integrity tools to enable companies to achieve
Net Zero
Having published Corporate Climate Stewardship guidelines with WWF and CDP in 2018 that codified the expectation for companies to reduce emissions in line with what science indicates is needed to reach global net zero targets AND finance reductions beyond their corporate boundaries, we are scaling our high-integrity carbon credit portfolio and introducing new tools that allow companies to meet their climate targets.
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1 - Reduce within corporate boundaries: Solutions to reduce Scope 3 emissions and credibly report to GHG Protocol + Science Based Targets
These programmes remain in piloting phase and are expected to represent new opportunities for project developers with corporate partners as they scale.
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2 - Finance beyond corporate boundaries: Market instruments to accelerate progress to global net zero emissions
- Gold Standard will continue advocating to increase demand for high impact carbon credits to help Gold Standard developers to sell their credits at sustainable prices:
- Avoided emissions for near-term global reductions
- Carbon removals for long-term net zero targets – including new opportunities to pursue more project activity types such as soil organic carbon, blue carbon and new finance-based approaches to larger scale nature based solutions.
- Continue to enhance the project marketplace to provide a transparent, credible and simple platform for selling carbon credits directly to end-buyers
- Best practice guidance for using carbon credits as part of a corporate climate strategy, including claims guidance, with WWF. See recent report.
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Advocacy + solutions for public and private sector investment
Gold Standard maintains that progress reported toward Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and impact investments must meet high standards of safeguards, stakeholder inclusivity and robust climate and development impact quantification. We’re working with developed and developing country governments to raise the bar for climate finance and measuring outcomes, as well as pioneering new blended finance mechanisms to catalyse high-impact climate finance.
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1 - For governments: Ensure impact in use of Articles 6 + 9 to meet NDCs
- Advocacy for inclusion of sustainable development principles through the Sustainable Development Initiative, co-managed with UNEP-DTU.
- Solutions including:
- Additionality Framework to ensure climate finance in bilateral cooperation delivers real climate impact as well as sustainable development outcomes
- MRV systems to support developing countries in attracting climate finance, with first efforts with the government of Mongolia in collaboration with NDC Partnership.
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2 - For investors: Design funds for highest impact and make credible claims on impact investment
These opportunities are still at a preliminary stage. We will provide more information on the opportunities we expect these initiatives to provide in due course.
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If you would like to learn more about or feed into any of these initiatives, contact help@goldstandard.org
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RULE UPDATE
COVID-19 INTERIM MEASURES
These interim measures been extended from 31/12/2020 to 30/06/2021. This update also features further clarification for Stakeholder Consultations and how to conduct these assessments and move projects forward in light of the duration of the pandemic.
For deviations already approved with earlier COVID-19 interim measures, the end-dates are automatically allowed to be extended to 30/06/2021. Any queries on the potential impact for projects under these interim measures can be sent to – covid19@goldstandard.org.
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WATER IMPACT METHODOLOGY
WATER AND EROSION IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL LAND MANAGEMENT PROJECTS
Top soil erosion is one of the main drivers of land degradation. Agricultural lands with declining soil organic matter face reductions in the water infiltration capacity of soil, leading to increased run-off and further topsoil erosion. This new methodology quantifies the water benefits created when adopting sustainable agricultural land management practices (SALM) that mitigate soil erosion.
Related Documents:
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THANK YOU AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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We thank you all for your ongoing support throughout this unprecedented year and wish you all health and happiness over the holiday season and into 2021.
We look forward to continued collaboration next year and catalysing even more ambitious action to protect the planet and its people!
Warm regards,
The Gold Standard team
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