Verra is in the midst of streamlining its project review processes and wishes to provide an update to October’s announcement Important Reminder: End-of-Year Timeline for Verra Project Reviews.
For context, Verra has received significantly increased numbers of requests from 2021 to 2022:
| Type of request | Change from 2021 to 2022 (year-to-date extrapolation from 30 November 2022 actuals) |
| Pipeline listings | + 226% |
| Registrations | + 243% |
| Verifications | + 90% |
| CCB requests | + 187% |
| SD VISta requests | + 589% |
Verra acknowledges that current timelines for processing project reviews need to be brought down. To reduce these timelines and to respond to the increased demand for project reviews, Verra is undertaking the following:
- Strengthening VVB auditing capacity. Verra has established a new dedicated Auditing and Accreditation team to oversee validation and verification body (VVB) performance in all Verra standards programs and also a new dedicated team focused on building the capacity of existing and new VVBs and accreditation bodies. The teams have already begun to hold training sessions to increase the quality of VVB audits and to conduct performance audits of VVBs.
- Conducting more market access and capacity-building training sessions for supply-side market participants. Audiences for these sessions include existing and new project proponents (PPs), national and subnational governments, trade associations, and development banks. Within the past few weeks, these have included well attended sessions to stakeholder audiences in Brazil, India, and South Korea.
- Aggressively expanding human resources capacity. Verra is focusing efforts to expand on building internal capacity for conducting project reviews, including by significantly expanding the size of the team, hiring experts to assist with project reviews, and internally seconding staff throughout the organization.
- Auditing all internal systems and procedures. The team is identifying and implementing efficiencies in our project review process that maintain the quality of our reviews.
- Improving focused communications with stakeholders. The team is implementing several measures to clarify specific aspects of Verra’s requirements and processes, e.g., dedicated webinar training sessions on certain reporting requirements.
- Updating our stakeholder communications systems. New features include a stakeholder portal to streamline interactions with project proponents, enabling them to directly check the status of their project reviews.
(For more details see our Remodeling to Serve You Better announcement.)
Notwithstanding the above pressures, Verra’s paramount goal is to ensure the integrity of the units that it issues. Verra staff will therefore continue to undertake project reviews with the required level of diligence and thoroughness.
To minimize the impact of current delays on the market, Verra is willing to provide stakeholders with documentation to substantiate the above, should this be helpful in backstopping provisions in commercial contracts related to delivery risk. Please contact info@verra.org if this would be of interest.
In closing, Verra’s mission is to advance critically important climate action in a world that urgently needs it. The rapid growth we are currently seeing is ultimately a sign that many stakeholders are dedicated to the same goal, and we look forward to working together to turn these challenges into opportunities.