News item | 10-12-2023 | 12:00
Effective and reliable voluntary carbon markets can play a role in supporting faster and more ambitious climate action. These markets facilitate the trade in carbon certificates, where one certificate equals one ton of CO2. Based on these certificates, organizations and companies make climate claims that can help them make choices for achieving their Paris goals.
However, without robust standards and safeguards, the use of carbon certificates can undermine climate action and harm the climate, environment and communities. For example, because false claims are made. Low prices, a lack of transparency and the absence of clear guidelines for this market currently threaten to delay the approach to climate change.
That’s why a group of European countries are today proposing joint recommendations to improve the integrity of the voluntary carbon market. These recommendations should help companies make choices in line with Paris and ensure full transparency, high-quality carbon certificates and credible claims. They can be immediately adopted by the market – in the long term they serve as input for frameworks at EU level. The group consists of the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, France, Finland and Austria.
The recommendations are:
- Mapping direct and indirect emissions and drawing up a climate plan with clear emission reduction targets, in line with Paris.
- Prioritizing emission reduction in your own organization and value chains, before considering the use of carbon certificates.
- Making clear claims in response to the use of carbon certificates and providing sufficient detail to avoid misleading. And indicate whether the certificates are used to achieve your own climate goals (compensation claim) or contribute to achieving climate goals in the host country (contribution claim), to prevent double claiming.
- Buy high-quality certificates that facilitate real, additional and permanent mitigation.
- Paying attention to the situation in the host country and how the purchase of carbon certificates there contributes to sustainable development goals.
- Report and ensure transparency on the use of carbon certificates.
Minister of Climate and Energy Rob Jetten: “Greenwashing is harmful to confidence in companies, the functioning of markets and to the climate. That’s why today we’re making a proposal to improve the integrity of voluntary carbon markets. Our concrete recommendations provide guidance to the market and direction to further EU discussions.”