The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) announced that carbon credits issued under current renewable energy methodologies, representing nearly one-third of the voluntary carbon market, will not qualify for its high-integrity CCP (Core Carbon Principles) label.
The CCPs establish a global benchmark for high-integrity carbon credits. They are designed to build trust in the voluntary carbon market, ensure comparability of credits, and enable the market to maximise its potential to tackle rising greenhouse gas emissions and unlock significant private finance for climate solutions.
The Governing Board determined that eight methodologies used for designing and implementing renewable energy projects do not meet the CCP Assessment Framework’s standards for additionality. These methodologies are deemed insufficiently rigorous in determining whether the projects would have proceeded without the incentive of carbon credit revenues. These methodologies encompass around 236 million unretired credits, constituting 32% of the voluntary carbon market.
With the latest assessment decisions, the total number of unretired credits approved to use the CCP label has been reduced to an estimated 27 million, or 3.6% of the market. Additionally, the Board has approved a new methodology projects that detect and repair methane leaks in the gas industry, covering an estimated 19 million unretired carbon credits, or 2.6% of the market. The board has also approved a revised version of a previously approved methodology for capturing methane from landfill sites.
The governing board of ICVCM has rejected a methodology for projects involved in reducing sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) emissions in the magnesium industry as they do not meet additionality requirements. This methodology is used by a relatively small number of unretired credits.
The board is also conducting multi-stakeholder assessments of popular carbon credit types, including REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), Jurisdictional REDD (JREDD), and clean cookstoves, likely to be completed in the months to come.
Annette Nazareth, Integrity Council Chair said, “We are taking the tough decisions necessary to build a high-integrity voluntary carbon market that can be scaled to meaningfully fund climate solutions and channel material amounts of finance to the Global South. While companies’ priority must always be to decarbonise their own value chains, carbon credits can be an important supplement, allowing them to go further and take responsibility for emissions they cannot yet cut.”
Amy Merrill, Integrity Council CEO said, “Our rigorous, science-based assessments are well underway and will give buyers confidence that CCP-labelled carbon credits deliver genuine emissions reductions and bring positive social and environmental benefits that support Indigenous Peoples and local communities. These decisions will shape the development of the market and all participants will benefit over time, as CCP-labelled credits unlock greater investment flows and drive innovation.”