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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Plan Vivo Foundation, goodcarbon and Blue Marine Foundation have collaborated to help us identify the core principles of high integrity in the biodiversity credit market. It surveyed companies of varying sizes, sectors and geographies to understand their perspectives and interest in the biodiversity credit market. Published in July 2024, the results revealed that half of all respondents are closely following developments in the biodiversity markets due to their nature and climate commitments.
This report, published in July 2024, synthesises the SBTi’s research into the effectiveness of environmental attribute certificates. As the first of three parts, this edition focuses on carbon credits. It analysed 406 pieces of evidence to conclude that carbon credits can be ineffective for delivering mitigation outcomes and that there could be clear risks to the corporate use of carbon credits for offsetting. NOTE: This is in contrast to the findings of other studies.
This report from Calyx Global considers whether the VCM is ‘on track’ to raise quality and looks at the state of beyond-carbon benefits (co-benefits) for people and biodiversity. Published in June 2024, it finds that the market values beyond carbon benefits, with projects contributing to the UN SDGs capturing a significant proportion of retirements. While it concludes the market is entering its VCM 2.0 era, it recommends a stronger emphasis on the principle ‘do no harm’.
Curious about natural climate solutions? Interested in investing but not sure where to start? This report, published by ERM Sustainability Institute; ERM; Natural Climate Solutions Alliance; WBCSD and the Forest Investor Club in June 2024, provides practical guidance to companies and financial institutions to invest in high-integrity NCS projects. Its ultimate purpose is to increase the flow of financial capital into these promising, high-impact solutions.