WHAT IS THE CARBON CREDIT QUALITY INITIATIVE?
The Carbon Credit Quality Initiative (formerly known as the Carbon Credit Guidance for Buyers Project) plans to deliver independent, user-friendly scorings for the quality of carbon credits. The initiative aims to enhance the integrity of carbon credits transacted in the market by enabling carbon credit buyers to identify high-quality credits and by encouraging carbon crediting programs, project developers and other market participants to pursue the highest standards.
WHY NOW?
Carbon credit markets are experiencing a resurgence as companies seek carbon credits to meet compliance obligations under emissions trading schemes, carbon tax policies or voluntary carbon sustainability strategies. As these markets grow, the environmental integrity of these carbon credits must not be compromised if they are to contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement — thereby enhancing global climate change mitigation efforts and providing positive, economic, social and environmental co-benefits.
WHY IS THIS INITIATIVE UNIQUE?
This initiative is unique, for three reasons:
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It is not funded, even in part, by revenues related to carbon credits;
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Experts providing the assessments are not employed by project developers or carbon crediting programs; and
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We score credits on an interval scale, not on a binary basis. This leads to a more granular assessment for buyers to make more informed decisions on carbon credit quality, and a clear path for project developers and carbon crediting standards to improve.
WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?
Project team experts are piloting the Carbon Credit Quality Initiative's methodology to assess three project types (landfill gas utilization, afforestation and reforestation, and efficient cookstoves) and four carbon credit programs (CDM, VCS, Gold Standard and CAR). Results will be made accessible through a user-friendly tool to allow users to input key features of a carbon credit and generate scoring results.
Enquiries should be sent to carboncreditqualityinitiative@gmail.com.
