❓Can you trust in the voluntary carbon market (VCM)? ❓

Without trust, the #VCM – a $2b/year market which is set to grow significantly – ceases to exist. In recent times, a range of criticisms have shone a spotlight on potential weaknesses of the VCM.

As a sector, we need to tackle these gaps head on. A voluntary market like the VCM requires standards and rules that everyone agrees to adhere to. This is where the #CoreCarbonPrinciples (CCPs) by The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) come in.

Released last week, the #CCPs are a set of guidelines for helping businesses and organizations structure their carbon emissions practices around the goals of sustainability, accountability, and transparency.

My analysis of the CCPs:

✅ What is beneficial about the CCPs?

The CCPs synthesise best-practices from the VCM and help carbon credits to earn the trust of the public by setting a formal framework for how to identify what delivers real net negative emissions.

❗Why might the CCPs not work?

There is nothing ground-breaking in the CCPs. Also, they are still missing a lot of details (some of which is said to be provided in Q2 2023). Finally, it is uncertain how much punch the CCPs will carry in terms of adoption.

🇪🇺 The CCPs should align with the CRCF

Finally, the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (#CRCF) addresses similar principles of credibility and transparency, albeit primarily for the compliance market. The CCPs need to align with definitions in the CRCF, otherwise we will end up with two different frameworks for the same thing.

The CCPs are a crucial step towards formalizing the quality assessment process for carbon credits. There are many great companies out there prioritizing high-quality carbon removal projects, such as Carbonfuture, whose mission since the beginning has been: "Carbon Removal you can trust."

Let’s look toward a future of high-quality, reliable, and net-negative carbon removal projects with these new CCPs. Leave a comment about your thoughts on the CCPs and further ways we can build trust in the carbon credits market.

See the complete CCPs here: https://lnkd.in/ePJiV95H