The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) today announced the first seven carbon-crediting methodologies that meet its high-integrity Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) (see our earlier bulletin on the CCPs here). The ICVCM assesses categories of carbon credit projects (methodologies and/or protocols) to determine whether they can be labelled as “CCP-Approved” and used by a “CCP-Eligible” program, which currently includes the American Carbon Registry (ACR), Architecture for REDD+ Transaction TREES, Climate Action Reserve (CAR), Gold Standard (GS), and Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). The ICVCM noted that the CCP label can now be used on an estimated 27M carbon credits issued from the two categories of CCP-Approved methodologies. The approval of the methodologies follows the Biden-Harris Administration’s announcement last week setting out principles for high-integrity voluntary carbon markets that relied heavily on the CCPs and other carbon crediting certification standards (see our earlier bulletin here).
This bulletin sets out the approved methodologies and provides an update on the assessment of other categories of carbon credits by the ICVCM:
Approved Methodologies
The ICVCM approved the following ozone depleting substances (ODS) and landfill gas (LFG) methodologies as meeting the CCP criteria and rules, enabling the respective CCP-Eligible programs to issue CCP-labelled carbon credits from eligible projects.
ODS methodologies. The following ODS methodologies are CCP-Approved:
- ACR’s Destruction of ODS from International Sources version 1.0;
- CAR’s Article 5 ODS Project Protocol versions 1-2; and
- CAR’s U.S. ODS Project Protocol versions 1-2.
LFG methodologies. The following LFG methodologies are CCP-Approved:
- the Clean Development Mechanism’s (CDM) ACM0001 – Flaring or use of Landfill Gas versions 15-19, used by Verra and GS;
- CDM’s AMS iii G – Landfill Methane Recovery version 10, used by Verra and GS;
- ACR’s Landfill Gas Destruction and Beneficial Use Projects version 1-2; and
- CAR’s US Landfill Protocol version 6.
Ongoing assessment of methodologies through Multi-Stakeholder Working Groups (MSWG). ICVCM indicated that it continues to conduct internal and MSWG reviews of the following six other carbon-crediting methodology categories, and expects the first three to come to the ICVCM Board for assessment decisions in the coming months:
- Improved Forest Management;
- Sustainable Agriculture, Rice Cultivation Methane Avoidance, Nutrition / Nitrogen Management, Buffer Practices, and Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation;
- Renewable Energy;
- Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and Jurisdictional REDD (JREDD) methodologies for forestry projects at national or sub-national scale;
- Household Energy Demand, including clean cookstoves and household biodigesters; and
- Biochar, tech-based carbon capture and storage (CCS), industrial biodigesters and other clusters of methodologies that require more specialized review.
For further information or to discuss the contents of this bulletin, please contact Lisa DeMarco at lisa@resilientllp.com.
*Special thanks to Anuja Purohit for her assistance in preparing this bulletin.
