COMMENT: The Voluntary Carbon Market is Reawakening – Let’s Make 2024 A Year of Action
This year, the American Forest Foundation attended its second Conference of Parties, COP28, held in Dubai. While many things came out of COP28, and perhaps even more hoped-for things did NOT come out of COP28, one incredibly important outcome concerned the voluntary carbon market’s role in the global struggle against climate change.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Westpac says no to deforestation – others will soon have to
All Australian banks and investors will soon need to make zero-deforestation commitments because it is increasingly well known that Australia is a deforestation hotspot, and this is attracting the scrutiny of legislators, consumers, and investors, the Wilderness Society writes.
Read MoreCOMMENT: Paris Agreement forest carbon transactions should follow tropical forest credit integrity guidance
In the context of increasing reports of forest carbon-related cooperative approaches under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, Parties should apply strive to ensure that all credits transacted are of the highest quality by applying guidance developed by leading environmental and Indigenous organisations, writes the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups.
Read MoreCOMMENT: US-EU negotiations on sustainable steel and aluminium showed little progress… so, what’s left for EU’s industry?
Negotiations over the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GSA) remain stuck in a complex impasse, necessitating substantial concessions that neither the EU or US is willing to provide, writes Irina Kustova, Research Fellow at Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).
Read MoreCOMMENT: To succeed, REDD+ should focus on what Indigenous peoples and Local Communities value
REDD+ standards should not only include technical and scientific aspects developed in the Global North, but also contributions and experiences of the inhabitants of the same territories where these standards will be implemented, writes Gustavo Sanchez of the Mexican Network of Rural Forestry Organizations and colleagues representing other Indigenous peoples and Local Communities.
Read MoreECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE – Shades of REDD+: Harmonized Biodiversity Claims as a Solution for Fragmented Biodiversity Markets
Since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, there’s been growing interest in market-based approaches for biodiversity conservation, but significant challenges remain in establishing a global market for biodiversity credits due to their complexity and context-specific nature. As Charlotte Streck writes, alternative solutions like national and local schemes and standardized biodiversity claims are being explored to address these challenges.
Read MoreCOMMENT: The future of clean cooking in the carbon market
Carbon markets must learn how to deal with the application of new practices and norms in clean cooking, and ensure we take the lessons from past actions without judging them against criteria that had yet to be invented, writes Owen Hewlett of Gold Standard.
Read MoreCOMMENT: We can’t afford to get this wrong – Ensuring high integrity in agricultural carbon credits is imperative for fighting climate change
The time is now to harness high integrity crediting of agricultural soil carbon projects in global mitigation efforts, but projects must be guided by considerations derived from the Integrity Council on the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles (CCP), writes Max DuBuisson, VP Sustainability Policy and Engagement at Indigo Ag.
Read MoreECOSYSTEM MARKETPLACE – Shades of REDD+: Reforming the International Financial Systems to Value High-Integrity Forests
Next week, the Republic of the Congo will host the Three Basins Summit of tropical forest basins, which account for 80% of the world’s tropical forests, house two-thirds of terrestrial biodiversity, and play an essential role in regulating the global carbon balance. Rarely has there been an event where forests play a more central role than the forthcoming meeting in Brazzaville. The Summit provides a unique opportunity to make the case for a reform of the rules of global public finance to value tropical forests as global climate and biodiversity assets, writes Charlotte Streck in a piece for Ecosystem Marketplace.
Read MoreCOMMENT: How did carbon accounting make the headlines?
Accounting rules are important, but, in a system where the fossil fuel industry is receiving a $7 trillion annual subsidy without any accounting rules whatsoever, fixing small historical inaccuracies and solving for complexity in what is now a micro-industry of REDD+ is far more constructive than ripping down the whole notion of environmental markets, writes Charles Bedford of Carbon Growth Partners.
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