Statement of Nathaniel Keohane
President, Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES)

May 28, 2024

On the U.S. Announcement of New Principles for High Integrity Carbon Credits:

“High-integrity voluntary carbon markets have the potential to catalyze tens of billions of dollars toward the clean energy transition and nature-based climate solutions. The principles announced today by the Biden Administration will help ensure that carbon credits represent real, additional, and durable cuts in emissions, and that they are used by companies in ways that augment and accelerate efforts to reduce emissions in their operations and supply chains. These principles represent a major milestone toward a market that can help dramatically scale up private investment into real climate solutions and sustainable economic prosperity.

“Today’s announcement also powerfully illustrates the growing convergence on what is needed to ensure high-integrity carbon credits. On the supply side, the principles are fully aligned with the Core Carbon Principles that the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets (IC-VCM) published last year and is now using to identify high-integrity carbon crediting programs and methodologies. On the demand side, the principles draw on the Voluntary Carbon Market Integrity initiative (VCMI) guidance for companies on how to use carbon credits as part of ambitious corporate climate strategies. By recognizing and reinforcing the work of leading civil society organizations working to strengthen voluntary carbon markets, the principles announced today will contribute to greater clarity and confidence among market participants.

“To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, we urgently need to mobilize every available dollar of climate finance. The voluntary carbon markets are not a silver bullet; nothing is. But they can tap into tens of billions of dollars that are currently sitting on the sidelines, while driving business transformation throughout companies’ value chains. The principles announced today, in concert with the civil society efforts they draw so deeply on, take us one step closer to that vision.”

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To reach a C2ES expert, contact Nora Zacharski at zacharskin@c2es.org.

About C2ES: The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) works to secure a safe and stable climate, by accelerating the global transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and a thriving, just, and resilient economy. C2ES is at the center of global efforts to reform and strengthen the voluntary carbon markets and to develop innovative new sources of carbon market finance. We are a founding member of the Executive Secretariat of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Markets, and serves as the Secretariat for the Energy Transition Accelerator, a partnership of the U.S. State Department, the Bezos Earth Fund, and The Rockefeller Foundation to accelerate the just clean energy transition in developing countries. Learn more at www.c2es.org.

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