Singapore, Verra, and Gold Standard announce playbook for ‘robust and effective’ carbon crediting

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Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat (NCCS) and two of the world’s largest carbon crediting schemes have today announced plans to create a playbook to help countries better utilise carbon credits in support of climate goals submitted under the Paris Agreement.

In collaboration with Gold Standard and Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard Program, NCCS is to develop a number of standard operating procedures in line with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which allows governments and private sector participants to cooperate through market-based mechanisms.

Long-running negotiations over how to finalise the rules governing Article 6 are on-going, with reports suggesting the COP28 Climate Summit is unlikely to break the deadlock between governments over how carbon markets should be policed. But the launch partners for the new playbook said they were aiming to set out clear roles for national and crediting program registries, detail how information should be exchanged between different registeries, and offer harmonised approaches for implementing and complying with Article 6.

The group said it hoped creating consistent processes can save governments time and money when developing their own national carbon credit schemes.

The three organisations are now set to seek feedback from other countries and independent carbon crediting programs, with the aim of completing the playbook by mid-2024.

Benedict Chia, director general for climate change at the NCCS, stressed that high-integrity carbon markets are needed to support collective efforts to advance global climate action.

“Robust and effective carbon credits projects can also benefit host countries through investments, jobs creation, and achievement of sustainable development goals,” he said. “Singapore supports the development of frameworks to facilitate international climate change cooperation amongst countries and stakeholders under Article 6, to keep the goals of the Paris Agreement within reach.”

Judith Simon, president and interim CEO of Verra, added that the new collaboration will help countries use existing and well-established standards to implement Article 6 compliant projects and achieve their own domestic climate goals.

Margaret Kim, CEO of Gold Standard, said that through the partnership Gold Standard would help national carbon credit registries integrate with existing market structures to build a market that works for countries, corporates, and investors – and most importantly helps get money to projects that can deliver real emissions reductions.

In related news, Singapore-based not-for-profit Climate Action Data Trust (CAD Trust) has today unveiled a Public Data Dashboard designed to increase the transparency and integrity of carbon markets by aggregating a series of fragmented datasets from diverse private and public carbon market registries.

The Dashboard contains 85 carbon credit data sets – including those from Verra, Global Carbon Council, EcoRegistry, BioCarbon Registry, the UNFCCC, and the Clean Development Mechanism – which are made available to all market players under a shared taxonomy.

Underpinned by blockchain technology, the CAD Trust claims the Dashboard allows the public to access, scrutinise, compare, and utilise extensive carbon credit data.

“Having gathered a critical mass of carbon credit data, the Dashboard marks a significant milestone in enhancing trust and transparency within carbon markets,” said Yuvaraj Dinesh Babu, executive director of the Trust.

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