A key objective for Gold Standard in carbon markets is to drive the adoption of best practice for the highest levels of environmental integrity and contributions to sustainable development.
Best practice Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects—those that also gain Gold Standard certification—are at risk of failure as a result of complex dynamics, changes and delays of intergovernmental negotiations if they do not have access to alternative markets such as the voluntary carbon market. This undermines climate action that is needed more urgently than ever.
Due to these risks, Gold Standard received requests from CDM project developers to issue Gold Standard Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) rather than Gold Standard labels for Certified Emission Reduction (CERs) while maintaining a valid CDM registration, or to transition from a CDM project to a Gold Standard VER project.
Recognising the need to simplify and expedite the process for CDM projects to transition to Gold Standard for Global Goals and support continuity of best practice projects, Gold Standard has updated the GHG Emission Reduction and Sequestration Product Requirements, expanding the scope of eligibility and providing further guidance to help project developers.