Carbon Credit Quality Initiative

The Carbon Credit Quality Initiative offers independent scorings to measure the quality of carbon credits. Produced by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Oeko-Institut and World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US), it is a useful and ongoing resource to help carbon credit buyers identify high quality in the market. It is a unique initiative because: It is not funded by revenues related to carbon credits; the experts providing the assessments are not employed by project developers or carbon crediting programs; and it scores credits on an interval scale, not on a binary basis.

Carbon Market Regulations Tracker

Gold Standard’s tracker is intended to enhance the transparency of carbon market regulations, and support governments, project developers, investors, and other market participants in navigating the evolving regulatory landscape. This ongoing project visualises carbon market regulations by country on its map and allows users to explore by country.

Integrity matters: Net zero commitments by businesses, financial institutions, cities and regions

The highly influential report is essential reading for anyone entering the voluntary carbon market. First published in November 2022, by The United Nations’ high-level expert group on the net zero emissions commitments of non-state entities, it gives ten recommendations to help establish a clear standard and criteria for net zero. These ideas are designed to bring greater integrity, transparency and accountability to climate goals. It draws a ‘red line’ under greenwashing with its determined work to end dishonest carbon accounting and reporting.

Expert review of the science underlying nature-based climate solutions

What do you think of nature-based solutions? If you’re unsure, this academic paper could be for you. Published in Nature Climate Change in March 2024, it assesses the scientific basis of 43 nature-based solutions using an extensive literature review and expert elicitation. It revealed that the most used pathways, such as tropical forest conservation, have a solid scientific basis for mitigation.

Offsets As Ordered: Buyer Due Diligence To Ensure Carbon Credit Quality

This report from The Nature Conservancy helps buyers navigate the voluntary carbon market. Produced in March 2023 – a time when so much of the market was in flux – this report helps reduce risk for those looking to buy carbon credits. It provides guidance on due diligence and equips businesses with the knowledge to identify high-quality credits.

The Science Based Targets Initiative’s Scope 3 Requirements: A Discussion Paper

In July 2024 The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published a discussion paper on the SBTi’s proposed revisions to its Scope 3 requirements. WWF emphasised that it promotes, first and foremost, a reduction of value chain emissions. It restates its support for carbon credits being used to support within value chain emission reduction but only supports their use for outside value chain reduction in the case of residual emissions. However, WWF would like to see companies investing outside of their value chains to support the Global South with additional climate finance.

High forest, low deforestation areas: Perspectives from the voluntary carbon market

The Nature Conservancy investigated the appropriateness of the voluntary carbon market to finance HFLD conservation in this report released in August 2024. It interviewed experts to reveal some compatibility concerns, with many participants suggesting that issues in REDD+ should be resolved before turning to HFLD. It also spoke of risks within the VCM that could prevent it from being an appropriate mechanism for HFLD.

Demand for low-quality offsets by major companies undermines climate integrity of the VCM

For this study, the researchers focused on the twenty companies retiring the most offsets from the voluntary carbon market between 2020 and 2023. Published in Nature Communications in August 2024, the study questioned whether their offsets could be considered high quality. NOTE: The ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles set a framework to assess quality, signalling a move to higher standards across the market. This study concluded that many credits are low quality and that 87% are unlikely to create additional emission reductions.

Study of sustainability leads at large UK businesses

Insurance company, Gallagher, surveyed 100 sustainability business leaders with more than 250 employees. It found that nearly two-thirds will meet their net zero goals by purchasing carbon credits and that they are willing to spend an average of £20 million on carbon credit solutions. This study was published in August 2024.

Financing the transition the world needs: Towards a new paradigm for carbon markets

In this report, David Antonioli, the founding CEO of Verra, sets out his alternative vision for the voluntary carbon market. Published by Transition Finance in July 2024, he argues that carbon finance could be a transition tool. If projects rethought the concept of additionality, they could set a point at which carbon revenue is no longer needed for their project the sustain itself. This, he suggests, is needed to catalyse a just transition to a low-carbon economy.