The voluntary carbon market can be overwhelming for corporations seeking to invest in carbon removal or emission avoidance projects. With new methodologies and organizations constantly emerging, it can be difficult to determine what is credible and worthwhile. However, there are several key organizations in the market that corporations should be aware of.
The Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity Initiative (VCMI) is an organization that aims to improve the quality and credibility of carbon credits and claims. It provides guidance for corporations on purchasing high-quality credits that have a positive climate impact. The VCMI is headed by Mark Kenber and includes experienced advisors from organizations such as KPMG and Unilever.
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) focuses on creating guidance and rules for carbon credits to ensure additionality, durability, and leakage requirements are met. It has published its 10 Core Carbon Principles as benchmarks for evaluating high integrity carbon credits.
Verra is a well-known organization in the voluntary carbon market that sets standards, verifies carbon offset projects, and operates a carbon crediting registry. Projects verified by Verra can be considered credible and reliable.
The Gold Standard is another reputable organization that creates standards and methodologies for carbon crediting projects. It also operates an impact registry to track environmental assets.
The American Carbon Registry (ACR) is the first private voluntary greenhouse gas registry. It develops and approves methodologies for carbon credits and is involved in overseeing and verifying offset projects, particularly in California.
Puro.Earth focuses specifically on carbon removal projects and has its own registry and standards. It verifies when one metric ton of CO2 has been removed and sequestered from the atmosphere.
There are also smaller registries and rating agencies in the voluntary carbon market. One notable rating agency is Calyx Global, which provides project scores to assess the impact of carbon removal projects. BeZero Carbon and Sylvera are other rating platforms that assess projects based on sector-specific metrics.
Overall, corporations looking to navigate the voluntary carbon market should familiarize themselves with these key organizations and rating agencies to make informed and credible investments in carbon removal and emission avoidance projects.
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