{"id":23395,"date":"2023-08-01T09:00:19","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=23395"},"modified":"2023-08-15T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T17:12:15","slug":"navigating-the-core-carbon-principles-and-the-landscape-of-guidance-toward-a-high-integrity-carbon-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2023\/08\/01\/navigating-the-core-carbon-principles-and-the-landscape-of-guidance-toward-a-high-integrity-carbon-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Navigating the Core Carbon Principles and the Landscape of Guidance Toward a High-Integrity Carbon Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

This blog was authored by Jordan Faires (Manager at EDF+Business) and Pedro Martins Barata (Associate Vice President for Carbon Markets and Private Sector Decarbonization).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The voluntary carbon market is an essential tool to advance net zero progress. The market can help us channel much-needed finance to drive climate action, conserve vital ecosystems, and support sustainable development and livelihoods in local communities. However, one of the leading challenges for companies is differentiating high-integrity carbon credits in a crowded marketplace. New integrity guidance is shedding light on how companies can make the highest impact investments to complement their sustainability commitments.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Why is the conversation around carbon credits so complex and polarized? For good reason. For too long, the market has operated without overarching guidance to ensure these carbon credits truly deliver on their climate promises, and don\u2019t cause any unintended harm to people or nature. Intense media scrutiny has revealed bad actors and flawed practices, which has bruised public confidence in the market\u2019s capacity for positive climate action.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The integrity of carbon credits is essential for the voluntary carbon market to be effective in addressing climate change. Low-quality or fraudulent carbon credits could undermine the market and prevent it from delivering real climate benefits, not to mention potentially harm communities or ecosystems.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luckily, the voluntary carbon market is at a potential turning point. New guidance and resources released this year aim to ensure carbon credits deliver the positive impacts they promise. Recently, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) released its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), an anticipated set of principles that set a global threshold to define what a high-integrity carbon credit looks like.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What should companies and carbon credit buyers take away from the CCPs?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Already in 2023, the ICVCM will use its Assessment Framework to assess whether types of carbon credits meet the high-integrity CCP criteria, and will start issuing CCP labels to credits in the market. <\/span><\/b>To qualify for the CCP label credits must fund projects to reduce and remove emissions that are:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n