VCS Annual Program Update Brings New Opportunities to Address the Challenges of Climate Change
(Washington, D.C.) – With fledgling carbon markets springing up all across the world, today, the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) released an update to its program documents that will spur innovation and enhance monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) procedures to strengthen carbon markets and provide new opportunities for carbon mitigation. The program update includes a number of improvements designed to streamline and strengthen the VCS Program overall, as well as new tools for Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR) programs, including procedures for validating programs and verifying emission reductions, as well as tools to account for non-permanence and leakage. Released in 2012, the JNR framework has been adopted by several governments around the world to pilot groundbreaking carbon reduction programs in the forestry sector.
“It’s been exciting to see the JNR framework adopted by leading governments to address their specific REDD+ needs,” said VCS Chief Executive Officer David Antonioli. “By releasing these additional tools, we are providing best practice and workable approaches to enable jurisdictions to better account for potential reversals and leakage, as well as streamline other key elements of program development.”
Also included in the 2013 program update are key improvements that will provide better support for auditors to effectively audit projects against the VCS requirements, as well as streamline the VCS methodology approval process. A full list of program updates, documents and templates is available on the VCS website.
“As the world’s largest voluntary standard, it is imperative that we as an organization listen to the ideas of stakeholders all around the world, and use that engagement process to ensure the VCS Program is constantly meeting the needs of the international community,” said Mr. Antonioli. “We must always be vigilant and look for new opportunities to improve upon what we have built and expand both market-based systems and general MRV procedures that will help us address the very real and immediate problems of climate change.”
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Founded in 2005 by the Climate Group, the International Emissions Trading Association, the World Economic Forum, and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the Verified Carbon Standard has become one of the world’s most widely used carbon accounting standards. VCS has revolutionized the market developing trusted and innovative tools, as well as pioneering efforts to develop standardized methods that will streamline the project approval process, reduce transaction costs and enhance transparency. Across the world, projects using the VCS Standard have issued more than 130 million credits.