See annual reportWe are delighted to present Verra’s 2019 Annual Report which highlights many of the major milestones we achieved across various sectors in the previous year.

The prevalent theme of 2019 was that against the backdrop of limited and delayed government regulation, the private sector stepped up. Businesses made commitments and took determined actions to tackle climate change, helping to advance Natural Climate Solutions, addressing plastic pollution and ensuring the sustainability of landscapes from which they source the commodities they rely on.

Two years ago we rebranded Verra to bring our carbon market expertise to bear on other pressing environmental and social problems. This past year, we have made a lot of progress in our new and expanded role. In 2019, we saw all of the above trends reflected in the work of our standards-based programs. For instance:

  • As a result of the above corporate actions, we issued a record number of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) in 2019 and also saw a record number of retirements, the ultimate indicator that the units are actually “used”.
  • VCUs labeled with the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards hit a record high, indicating that non-carbon benefits continue to be critical for entities purchasing and retiring carbon credits.
  • Early in the year we launched the Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) with a view to driving finance to projects that make direct and measurable contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
  • We also, together with a number of key partners, launched the 3R Initiative to enable large-scale recovery and proper disposal of waste plastic, thereby addressing a critical environmental problem.
  • LandScale achieved some important milestones and is on the way to becoming a fully functional framework to drive landscape-scale sustainability.

These are just some examples of how Verra is using the principle of credible, transparent, and robust assessment of environmental and social outcomes to drive finance to a broad range of activities that benefit people and the planet.

Thank you for working with us and for being thought partners as we continually try to advance effective climate action and other activities that improve the planet and people’s lives.