The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC-VCM) has created its Core Carbon Principles to provide a benchmark for credible carbon offsets. These principles are grouped into categories, including governance, emissions impact, and sustainable development, to provide threshold standards for carbon credits. The intention is to bring consistency, transparency, and credibility to the voluntary carbon markets. As carbon credits play a critical role in many corporate emissions reduction plans, the council aims to make sure that the credits are both credible and additional to business as usual. The council will take a “regulation-like” approach, auditing programs, making spot checks, responding to complaints, and suspending or terminating programs or categories with poor integrity. Research has shown that up to 90% of avoided deforestation credits issued by certifier Verra had no appreciable impact and were labeled “phantom” credits. The IC-VCM aims to help corporates achieve their net-zero goals by providing a credible offset system that goes beyond basic carbon credit integrity. The voluntary carbon markets are an important tool for multinational companies. Carbon footprints must be measured and reduction targets set to ensure that we act effectively on climate change. Transparency, additionality, permanence, and causing no harm are essential baselines for the sector. It is important to note that the carbon markets are evolving rapidly, and we need to accept the need for change in methodologies and processes to address any challenges. Concerns about accusations of greenwashing are strong, leading to “greenhushing” by companies that are avoiding discussing their carbon reduction plans. This behavior will undermine the credibility of the carbon markets, and corporates need to have transparent short, medium, and long term targets and report publicly on their progress to create a successful voluntary carbon offset system.
Source link
It is important that carbon credit schemes also benefit local communities.
The World Meteorological Organisation has stated that 193 countries have given unanimous backing to a scheme to monitor global greenhouse...
