The Nature Conservancy updated its resource on Article 6 of the Paris Agreement following developments before the UN’s COP29 in Baku. Published in October 2024, this resource explains the differences between Article 6.2, and 6.4. It also explores the relationship between Article 5 of the Paris Agreement and Article 6. It writes that although Article 5 recognises the importance of forests, it is not a financial mechanism.
Howden and Pollination collaborated to publish a report on the role of insurance in unlocking finance for nature. Released in October 2024, it covers the current state of nature finance; the current state of insurance for nature finance and the nexus between the two. To enable investment in nature, the report argues that the insurance sector can play four core roles including risk transfer, protection of natural assets and enabling trading in environmental markets.
In November 2024, Nature4Climate released a glossary for REDD+ terminology. It unpicks the notoriously confusing jargon surrounding forest protection projects and explains the jurisdictional approach to REDD+ and results-based payments.
The UK government shared six principles for voluntary carbon and nature markets in November 2024. This policy paper encourages entities to use credits in addition to ambitious actions within value chains and sets out criteria to help identify high-integrity credits. The principles state that corporates should measure and disclose the planned use of credits as part of sustainability reporting and make accurate green claims using appropriate terminology.
The ICVCM has approved three REDD+ methodologies. Announced in November 2024, this paves the way for CCP-labelled REDD+ credits which are expected to be issued in 2025. The following methodologies have been approved: (ART) The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) v2.0, TREES Crediting Level; (VCS) VM0048 Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation v1.0; and
(VCS) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR) Framework v4.1. Millions of REDD+ carbon credits could be issued from these methodologies.
In this report, the World Economic Forum argues that investing in natural capital is essential, attractive and feasible. Released in September 2024, it assesses ways of unlocking capital for NCS as well as the innovations currently emerging in the market. It highlights that natural capital (that is the world’s stock of renewable and non-renewable natural resources that can deliver benefits to people) per capita dropped by 40% between 1992 and 2014, while produced capital doubled in the same period.
Terraspect has published a report that aims to reframe co-benefits into core benefits. Released in September 2024, it discusses the equitable distribution of carbon finance. The report outlines steps for transparent, equitable benefit sharing which include: Determining fair levels of compensation, appropriate payment mechanisms, effective verification and the impacts of institutional finance.
In September 2024, Climate Collective published a ‘non-exhaustive analysis’ of Indigenous participation in carbon and nature markets. It covered the challenges Indigenous Peoples can face during each phase of a project’s delivery and considered the effectiveness of FPIC. The reports looked into different models of engagements and business models which reframe revenue sharing into buying services from Indigenous Peoples.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released a guide to help financial institutions disclose climate and nature-related risk and risk management strategies. Published in September 2024, this guide offers practical steps for financial institutions to follow and explains the importance of nature in the context of net zero plans.
In September 2024, Nature4Climate analysed exisiting resources to better understand the sources of funding for forests. It considered both the current and potential contributions of each funding source to forest conservation and restoration projects and found that, while public finance is critical, it is unlikely to scale annually. Therefore, the report concluded that scaling up private finance is vital for global climate mitigation.