What is the Verified Carbon Standard?
Ellen Heimpel
The Verified Carbon standard (VCS) is an industry-leading certification programme that is used to verify carbon offset projects.
What is a carbon offset?
Businesses and organisations around the world are recognising the importance of reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and many of them are successfully reducing their climate impact through measures such as improving energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. However, it can be difficult for some organisations to completely eliminate their carbon footprint, especially in the short term. Carbon offsetting provides a mechanism to compensate for emissions that are still being released after reducing greenhouse gas emissions as far as possible.
âOffsettingâ is the act of balancing out the carbon footprint of something (or someone) by funding an equivalent reduction of carbon emissions elsewhere. The units used for carbon offsetting are tonnes of carbon dioxide (tCO2) or carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e), and in order to offset, these tonnes must be verified by a recognised carbon standard. Organisations can then purchase âcarbon creditsâ to compensate for their own emissions. It is critical to ensure, or verify that these emissions reductions are actually occurring. To facilitate this, several recognised standards exist to establish in a measured, specific way, what exactly counts as a carbon offset.
At Ecologi, each and every tonne of carbon that we offset is certified by an industry-leading carbon standard. The two standards that we use most often are the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Gold Standard. These standards have been identified by research carried out by the Stockholm Environment Institute, on behalf of WWF Germany, to be among the most effective and appropriate standards available for carbon offset projects.
We thought we would explain a little bit about what the Verified Carbon Standard is, and why we chose to fund projects by purchasing credits with this particular verification.
What is the Verified Carbon Standard?
Founded in 2007, the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program is the worldâs most widely used programme to purchase carbon offsets.
The VCS verifies projects that result in emissions reductions. These projects must follow a rigorous assessment criteria in order to be certified. Once projects have been certified, the project developers can be issued tradeable greenhouse gas credits that are called Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). These VCUs can be sold on the open market and bought by companies as a means to offset their own emissions. Once they are purchased, they are then âretiredâ meaning that the emissions reduction cannot be used again.
VCS projects cover a diverse range of sectors, including; renewable energy generation projects such as wind and hydroelectric power; and forestry projects such as forest protection and avoidance of deforestation.
The VCS Program is managed by Verra, an independent non-profit organisation. Verra is responsible for managing, overseeing and developing the program. It maintains an impartial position, meaning it does not develop projects or provide validation itself but just oversees the process. The Verra registry provides a public interface to all projects, programs and VCU information.
What are the criteria for a Verified Carbon Standard project?
All projects and programs that are verified by the VCS must meet the following principles:
- Real â All greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and the projects that generate them must be proven to have genuinely taken place.
- Measurable â All GHG emissions reductions must be quantifiable using recognised measurement tools against a credible emissions baseline.
- Permanent â Where GHG emissions reductions are generated by programs that carry a risk of reversibility, adequate safeguards must be in place to ensure that the risk of reversal is minimised and that, should any reversal occur, a mechanism is in place that guarantees the reduction will be replaced or compensated.
- Additional â All GHG emission reductions must be additional to what would have happened under a business-as-usual scenario if the project had not been carried out.
- Independently Audited â All GHG emissions reductions must be verified to a reasonable level of assurance by an accredited validation body that has the expertise necessary in both the country and sector in which the project is taking place.
- Unique â Each VCU must be unique and only associated with a single GHG emission reduction activity. There must be no double counting, or double claiming of the environmental benefits.
- Transparent â There must be sufficient and appropriate public disclosure of GHG-related information. All projects must be recorded in the Verra registry.
- Conservative â Conservative assumptions, values and procedures must be used to ensure that GHG emissions reductions are not over-estimated.
The VCS provides tools and guidance for projects to meet their high standards. To maintain their status as producing Verified Carbon Standard carbon offsets, the projects then have to go through many rounds of certification by both the VCS and by independent third parties, and submit annual update reports.
This certification therefore provides us with confidence that the projects deliver real emissions. So far, over 1,700 certified VCS projects have collectively reduced or removed more than 907 million tonnes of carbon and other GHG emissions from the atmosphere.
Ecologiâs Verified Carbon Standard certified projects
Only purchasing carbon offsets which meet rigorous standards is crucial to our aim of funding the most effective climate solutions. They provide security that the projects we fund are of the highest quality.
While the VCS focuses on GHG reduction attributes only and does not require projects to have additional or social benefits, we try our best to only fund projects that also have verified benefits to the surrounding community and local environment. For example, a VCS â verified project that we recently supported to generate geothermal power in West Java, Indonesia, also runs a large outreach and community programme. This programme includes: the planting of over half a million trees; the improvement of 13,000 hectares of land; and the supporting of local education and health, through the provision of over 3,000 local scholarships and health clinics.
We support a range of projects that deliver benefits across all levels, and we monitor our impact across all the projects we have funded to make sure we are tracking our organisational mission. Examples of our VCS certified projects include: forest protection in Northern Zimbabwe, providing clean energy through hydropower in Kanyungy, Uganda, and forest plantation on degraded grassland in Uruguay.
The Verified Carbon Standard is an industry-leading standard and certification for carbon offsetting projects that ensures that emissions reductions are real, measurable and permanent.
If you are looking to support Verified Carbon Standard offsetting projects, Ecologi offers a number of ways for businesses to offset their carbon emissions and contribute to the worldâs best climate crisis solutions.