This report from CCAG makes recommendations to improve the VCM’s capacity to reduce emissions and accelerate their removal from the atmosphere. Published in June 2024, it would like to see improvements to the standards; carbon credits used alongside deep, sustained emission reduction and a greater level of co-benefit integration into carbon project design.
Uncertain where to start with carbon credit quality assessment? This is a guide to the data-driven tools that can help. Produced by Climate Collective and RMI in June 2024, it shares a six-step process for purchasing carbon credits and shares tests that can be used to test the effectiveness of data packages. One especially useful section links existing carbon credit guidance with the most relevant stage of a buyer’s journey.
Published in April 2024, IETA’s guidelines are designed to help companies incorporate carbon credits into their decarbonisation strategies with integrity. As well as its six specific recommendations, these guidelines contain a useful comparison of the different guidances currently available to companies.
This resource from The Nature Conservancy is perfect for those looking to familiarize themselves with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Published in February 2024, it contains a useful graphic to explain Article 6.2, Article 6.4 and Article 6.8. It also discusses the outcomes of COP28 in Dubai in 2023 and what these decisions mean for the voluntary carbon market.
Published in February 2024 by the University of Oxford, these revisions to the 2020 Oxford Principles call for a ‘course correct’ for the VCM. It states that ‘current approaches are unlikely to deliver the level of emissions reduction needed to achieve global climate goals. NOTE: Despite the strong call to scale action, the Principles are supportive and clear. It says that each credit type offers different co-benefits and has a unique role to play in decarbonisation. The world needs avoidance and removal, just as it needs both nature and tech.
In the VCM, it is easy to think it’s all about carbon. However, forest conservation and restoration projects offer so much more. This guidance document from The World Resources Institute considers how forests affect the climate outside of carbon markets. Published in January 2023, it outlines six ways the UNFCCC parties can take action on these non-carbon climate benefits.
Without seriously scaling investment in nature-based solutions, humanity will not be able to limit global temperature rise to a safe and liveable level. Cue this guidance – a document designed to help corporates invest in nature. Published by We Mean Business in December 2022, it shares five recommendations for corporates: reduce emissions in your own business now; cut land-based emissions from your value chain; invest in NBS beyond your value chain; engage with policy and transparently communicate actions.
This resource from NCS Alliance makes the business case for natural climate solutions. Published in September 2022, it shares immediate actions that C-suit executives can take right now that will support nature, the climate and their businesses. Above all, this guidance document emphasises the need for quality throughout the decarbonisation process.
This guidance document from The World Resources Institute explains how nature-based carbon credits can support decarbonisation through 2040. Published in June 2022, it recommends the voluntary carbon market adopt guardrails to better align itself with two principles: carbon projects should respect the rights of Indigenous people and a company must already be on an emission reduction pathway before purchasing carbon credits.
Produced by The World Resources Institute, this document guides the voluntary use of carbon credits generated by nature-based solutions, particularly those generated beyond an organization’s value chain. Developed by a WRI working group in June 2022, it is focused on nature-based solutions and markets and acts as a one-stop resource to discover the Institute’s latest thinking on nature-based solutions.