Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces New Principles for High-Integrity Voluntary Carbon Markets

On 28 May, the Biden-Harris Administration released their Joint Statement of Policy and new Principles for Responsible Participation in Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs).

Sheri Hickok, CEO at Climate Impact Partners, shares her insights on the update. 

Quality and integrity: we all have a role to play

The US Biden-Harris Administration supports what so many of us are pushing for across the industry - Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) projects designed and executed with high quality and high integrity to deliver real, positive, climate impact today. Quality and integrity must be the bar to entry.

Many across the private sector know their climate impact potential but we need to support them in unlocking this demand and engaging with the VCM. These principles help to provide that support, pointing towards emerging consensus around the necessary guardrails to give confidence that helps more commit to taking action. They recognize just how powerful the VCM can be, channelling finance to projects that impact unabatable emissions today, whilst benefitting communities on the front line of climate change. Projects that can bring:

• clean water to the two billion people without
• provide clean cooking to the over two billion people without, and
• unlock the full force of nature as a climate mitigation tool while restoring critical biodiversity loss

We must enable companies to communicate openly about their use of carbon credits in their climate strategies.  And we must celebrate the early leaders taking action now.

As an industry, we all have a role to play in ensuring the quality and integrity these principles seek to drive. For us, this forms the foundations of our work, continuously improving, learning, and evolving, using the latest science, technology, and guidelines."