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Integrity Council approves three REDD+ methodologies

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market announced today that it has approved three methodologies for issuing high integrity carbon credits for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+):  

• (ART) The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES) v2.0, TREES Crediting Level  

• (VCS) VM0048 Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation v1.0 

• (VCS) Jurisdictional and Nested REDD+ (JNR) Framework v4.1
  

With the approved methodologies due to start issuing soon, REDD+ credits are expected to be labelled with the CCP label from early 2025.  

No credits have yet been issued under the approved methodologies, but there is a large volume of credits in the pipeline. There are nine jurisdictions in the ART TREES pipeline, with the potential to issue 123 million credits. Likewise there are 21 projects in development under VM0048, with the potential to issue approximately 300 million credits during their first crediting period, and 5 projects under Verra’s JNR Framework. Today’s announcement means that when these credits are issued, they will be eligible for CCP labels.  

Two further crediting levels of the REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard V2.0 – the HFLD Crediting Approach and the Removals Crediting Approach – are still in the assessment process and decisions are expected by year end, along with decisions on clean cookstove methodologies. 

Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is critical to ensure we reach our climate targets and prevent crossing dangerous tipping points in forest ecosystems. Largely eliminating tropical forest deforestation this decade is a key milestone in all climate models that limit global temperature rise to 1.5ºC.  

Amy Merrill, Integrity Council CEO, said: “There is no chance of meeting our climate and biodiversity goals without increased finance for nature, Indigenous Peoples and local communities. The assessment process has concluded that these approved methodologies are robust and that they manage risk effectively. These decisions are important, bringing the confidence needed to underpin investment and markng the start of a much-needed new chapter for nature in the carbon markets.”   

The Governing Board was satisfied that the approved methodologies address the concerns identified in older REDD+ methodologies, and will usher in a new generation of high-integrity projects. For example, under VCS’ new VM0048, project developers no longer set their own baselines based on self-selected reference areas. Instead VCS has agreed to establish project baselines, based on jurisdictional deforestation data combined with an assessment of deforestation risk in the specific project area. [See more detail on program changes below]. The assessment process concluded that this change substantially reduces the risk of over-crediting. 

The ART-TREES methodology and VCS-JNR are jurisdictional methodologies. These operate at a much larger scale than project-based REDD, with national or state-level programs protecting enormous swathes of forest from deforestation through policy and regulation. In future, jurisdictional approaches are expected to be more firmly embedded in national forestry policies and in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).   

Gabriel Labbate, co-chair of the Integrity Council’s Expert Panel, said: “These approved methodologies have demonstrated that they have significantly improved the integrity of REDD+ methodologies. Throughout the assessment process we found that they have rigorous approaches in place to ensure additionality, permanence, robust quantification and social safeguards, among other criteria.” 

When applying to the ICVCM, Verra excluded its older REDD+ methodologies (VM0006, VM0007, VM0009, VM0015 and VM0037) from assessment. These methodologies account for the majority of REDD+ credits on the market and around a quarter of all carbon credits retired in 2023. These methodologies will not be assessed by ICVCM and credits issued under them will not be able to receive the CCP label. 

Verra requires operational Avoiding Unplanned Deforestation REDD + projects using the older methodologies to transition across to VM0048. Transitioning projects are required to undergo a requantification to account for differences between the older methodologies and VM0048 on issues such as baseline and monitoring calculations. Projects that successfully complete this transition to VM0048 and issue credits under this methodology will be able to label their credits as CCP Appoved. 

The assessment process considered a number of specific concerns raised in connection with the approved methodologies, as detailed in the Board observations. Some were found to be not material issues and others had already been adequately addressed. The programs have introduced changes to strengthen methodologies consistent with the requirements of the ICVCM’s Assessment Framework. For example, some changes were made by one program during the assessment process (detailed below)and another made further information public. 

Annette Nazareth, Integrity Council Chair, said: “In taking a first decision on this category the Board considered the perspectives expressed by members of the Expert Panel and subject matter experts, alongside the conclusions of the various experts who worked with the Integrity Council in the relevant multi-stakeholder working group. We are grateful for the rigorous engagement of our independent experts, which has enabled us to reach the first set of assessment decisions on this important category of carbon credits.”