Verra has released updates to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, including those that were open for public consultation between July and September 2022:
The full list of updates released, including effective dates and grace periods, can be found in the December 2022 VCS Program Update: Overview of Substantive Updates to Program Rules and Requirements and Effective Dates document (PDF).
Deferred Update
The VCS Program update related to the addition of a discount factor for crediting in cases of upstream displacement of an activity, product, or service, which was included in the July 13 – September 11 consultation, has been deferred. This is due to the stakeholder-identified need to develop a Verra-determined default discount factor.
Webinar
Verra held a webinar on Monday, 16 January 2023, at 12:00 pm ET to provide an overview of the above VCS Program updates.
Affected VCS Program Documents
The following VCS Program documents, templates, and representations are affected by the above updates (listed with the new version numbers); all documents can be found on the VCS Rules and Requirements page or the JNR Rules and Requirements page:
Appreciation for Stakeholder Inputs
These VCS Program updates were developed following valuable stakeholder input received during the public consultation on VCS Program updates that ran from July to September 2022, and the public consultation on updates to the VCS Methodology Approval Process that ran from August to September 2022. Summaries of comments from these consultations and Verra’s responses are available on the VCS Governance and Development page of the Verra website. Thank you to everybody who submitted feedback!
Contact
If you have questions about any of these updates, please contact programupdates@verra.org.
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