By Carbon Finance
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) have announced a streamlined process to jointly approve greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and removal projects.
Many VCS agriculture, forestry and other land use projects already seek added value by also being certified to the CCB standards, which confirm that they deliver sustainable development benefits. These include the protection of endangered species, the reduction of poverty, the enhancement of worker safety and the implementation of climate change adaptation measures.
But this long-planned link-up will create a new dual-accreditation, allowing projects that complete the process to be labeled ‘VCS + CCB’.
The new system will benefit both project developers, who have played an active role in developing the templates, and project auditors.
“By integrating the documentation needed for projects to become both VCS and CCB certified, we have streamlined a critical part of the process and made it easier and cheaper to develop projects that both reduce GHG emissions and have demonstrable sustainable development benefits,” said VCS chief executive officer David Antonioli. “Partnerships like this one are key to reducing transaction costs and will help developers navigate the approval processes more effectively.”