The Coalition to Grow Carbon Markets, a government led initiative to strengthen demand for carbon credits has issued a set of Shared Principles on the use of high-integrity carbon credits credits. The governments of France, Kenya, Singapore, the UK, and Panama collectively announced the principles with an aim to unlock capital for development, support economic activity, and enable progress towards global climate goals.
Read our CEO's response below and on LinkedIn here.
The Shared Principles establish six pillars for corporate use of carbon credits:
- Use carbon credits in addition to decarbonization - companies should prioritise direct and indirect emissions reductions first, using carbon credits to address remaining or hard-to-abate emissions without deferring internal decarbonization.
- Ensure high environmental integrity - prioritize carbon credits that are aligned with the ambition and principles of the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism and/or similarly high integrity frameworks such as the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles or ICAO’s CORSIA criteria. Credits must represent high quality emissions reductions and removals from technology and nature-based activities which address risk of non-permanence, and disclose whether corresponding adjustments are applied.
- Uphold fair pricing, safeguards, and co-benefits - pricing must reflect fair value for emissions reductions and removals being delivered, and ensure transparent and equitable benefit sharing. Carbon credits should be from activities that apply strong social, economic and environmental safeguards and companies should prioritize those that demonstrate meaningful co-benefits for people and nature
- Disclose credit use transparently - companies should publicly and transparently disclose how carbon credits are used within their climate strategies. At a minimum:
- Number of credits retired;
- The carbon credit certification standard, project ID, retirement date, serial number range, and issuing registry for each batch of retired credits;
- Host country, project type, methodology, credit vintage
- Whether or not the credit has received a relevant authorisation as an Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcome (ITMO) under the Paris Agreement.
- Make accurate and substantiated claims - climate claims should be clear, truthful and substantiated to avoid greenwashing and misleading stakeholders, following relevant standards, such as the VCMI’s Claims Code of Practice. All claims must be legally compliant, and third-party verified where possible.
- Support growth of high-integrity markets - companies should collaborate to improve market transparency, innovation, and risk management tools to ensure credibility and scalability.
