Dear Colleague,

One of our key goals at VCS is to develop ambitious partnerships and initiatives that drive sustained impacts. As such, we are delighted to announce our partnership with Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (WOCAN) to support their W+ Standard on our registry platform, allowing project developers to demonstrate leadership in promoting women’s empowerment as well as combatting climate change through jointly labeled carbon credits. This partnership illustrates how we can work with other organizations that provide practical solutions to the world’s pressing problems.

We are also pleased to see Colombia is sending a strong market signal as its new carbon market picks up steam. We hope this innovative step from Colombia is the first of many such programs around the world. Read on for these and other updates from our team.

Sincerely,

David Antonioli
CEO

Updates

VCS Partners with WOCAN

We just had a great launch event at Climate Week in New York City announcing our new partnership with WOCAN to offer Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) also labeled under the W+ Standard. Project developers using the VCS Program can apply the W+ Standard to demonstrate contributions to women’s empowerment, advancing progress on Sustainable Development Goal #5 for gender equality. The option of labeling a VCU with the W+ Standard should speak to the interests of numerous corporations and individuals who care about women’s empowerment. This partnership is a great example of how our open platform approach continues to inspire new innovations in standards and methodologies. We’ve worked with WOCAN to make sure that the two standards are consistent and compatible for ease of application in the field, and we’re honored to play our part in supporting women’s contributions to local economies and to combatting climate change. See the press release for more details.

VCUs in Colombia’s Carbon Market

In June of this year, Colombia approved an innovative measure allowing high-quality carbon credits to be used against the country’s new carbon tax on fossil fuels. This summer alone, over 1.5 million VCUs from over a dozen VCS projects have been retired for use in the Colombia carbon tax program. This is a significant milestone for us as it means the Government of Colombia recognizes the rigor behind VCUs. In the future, the government will list all units used towards the tax on a public registry. To learn more about the tax and how to submit cancelled VCU’s for compliance, please see our web post.

ICAT Guidance Public Consultation Next Steps

Many thanks to all who helped improve ICAT’s guidance by participating in our recent public consultation. Your comments will help ensure the guidance is clear and meets country needs. We are now reviewing all comments and will prepare a summary of how comments have been considered in preparation for the next draft of the guidance documents. Though the formal consultation period has ended, we welcome feedback at any time. If you have any questions regarding the ICAT process, please email Sinclair Vincent at svincent@v-c-s.org. For more information on the ICAT public consultation, please visit the website.

VCS and CCB Program Projects Open for Public Comment

Four VCS and two CCB Program projects are currently open for public comment. VCS projects include two projects in inner Mongolia converting logged to protected forest, an LED light replacement project in Singapore, and a small-scale hydroelectric project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From the CCB Program, one project open for comment is establishing around 1.5 thousand hectares of rubber tree plantations in Guatemala to provide employment and increase forest cover for a biocorridor. The second, in Northern Kenya, is implementing rotational grazing to reduce livestock impacts, increasing plant diversity and soil carbon sequestration in the project area. Please see our website for a full list of VCS and CCB projects open for comment and to provide comments.

Check out our REDD+ Talk

Code REDD has released a series of videos from their “REDD+ Talks” held just prior to this year’s Innovate 4 Climate conference in Barcelona. We had the honor of presenting a talk during the day-long forum, which is now available for viewing. In his “REDD+ Talk”, CEO David Antonioli covers the importance of nested REDD, what’s needed to make nesting credible and what the future of nesting could look like. Check out his presentation and recordings from the rest of the excellent presenters online.

VCS in the Media