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As business leaders and politicians worldwide announce pledges and plans to reach net-zero, the need for a just transition can too often be forgotten. But it is essential that all our plans are viewed through a universal and just lens. And SDG 17 ‘Partnerships for the Goals’ is key to enabling such efforts; to succeed at building a sustainable environmental, social and economic future for everyone.
Throughout March, Gold Standard employees have travelled around the world to run capacity-building workshops, visit project sites, speak at events, and build upon important partnerships. This month also saw the announcement of our Coal Decommissioning Methodology Concept which aims to ensure communities that currently depend on coal power plants are justly supported through the transition to alternative energy sources.
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ANNOUNCEMENT
COAL-DECOMMISSIONING METHODOLOGY CONCEPT
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Gold Standard has released for consultation a proposed methodology concept for the early phase-out of coal fired thermal power plants and their replacement with green-field renewable energy plants.
Coal-fired power plants are one of the major sources of base power supply globally, but also the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Transforming such an industry can seem insurmountable. But viable solutions have been mapped out. By using a range of existing and innovative new carbon finance instruments to encourage their early replacement with renewable energy, we can accelerate our journey towards a net-zero world, while ensuring that those communities that are currently dependent on coal power plants are supported through the transition.
The aim of the methodology concept is to encourage the early phase-out of coal fired thermal power plants and their replacement with renewable energy. Importantly, it is supported by robust sustainable development contributions that ensure a just energy transition for those impacted by the change. It is also intended to further explore other fossil phase-out options towards grid decarbonisation.
Gold Standard will start work on the methodology and guidance immediately and welcomes feedback and input from stakeholders via the public consultation, until 22 April 2023.
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NEWS
BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS ACROSS CONTINENTS
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BENIN
This month, Margaret Kim, Gold Standard's CEO, met with the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Benin to commemorate their collaboration, which was established during COP27. The cooperation between the parties is an effort to contribute to national  and international socio-economic development through activities that reduce emissions and build resilience to climate change, through the use of the certification products and services available under Gold Standard.
The trip also involved a local capacity building workshop and site visits to some of the first Gold Standard listed projects in Benin.
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KOREA
Our Senior Director for Market Development and Partnerships, Hugh Salway, was in Korea for a seminar co-organised by the Korean Chamber of Commerce  and Industry and the Climate Change Centre. Hugh gave a keynote speech covering the evolution of the carbon market, the importance of impact for climate and sustainable development, and convergence between voluntary and compliance markets.
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GABON
Our CEO Margaret Kim took part in several panel discussions at the One Forest Summit, where frank discussions took place about the best ways to incentivise preserving standing forests, reversing deforestation and restoring degraded landscapes for the benefit of climate, nature and society.
 Margaret highlighted the important role for carbon markets in this effort, and welcome the focus on integrity on both supply and demand, especially the importance of inclusion and empowerment of local communities. She also called for a much greater emphasis on innovative financial mechanisms that can meet the specific needs of different public and private funders and scale quickly.
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EGYPT
Our Chief Growth Officer, Sarah Leugers, met with Her Excellency Yasmine Fouad, Egyptian Minister of Environment, and Sherif el Diwany, Managing Director for MGM Climate Business Developers in March to discuss developing a high-integrity carbon market and building local capacity to attract climate finance in Egypt.
EGYCOP, the Egyptian f  und for investment in projects that issue carbon credits was launched during COP27. As a partner, Gold Standard is supporting EgyCOP members to ensure the delivery of high-integrity credits, SDG impacts and to increase local capacity.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
CAPACITY-BUILDING ADAPTATION WORKSHOPS
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Part 1
March 2023, Senegal, West Africa
Gold Standard, as a key partner of the Subnational Climate Finance initiative (SCF), hosted a capacity building workshop in Senegal this March. The event brought together key actors from national and subnational governments, local project developers and financial institutions, and gave them an introduction to the SCF initiative and the support it can provide for adaptation projects in Africa.
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Part 2
18 - 19 April, Cape Town, South Africa
Following the event in Senegal, Gold Standard will run an adaptation workshop in Cape Town this April. The workshop will provide local service providers interested in adaptation the technical knowledge and training to build financeable adaptation projects in African cities.
The workshop will be limited to 30 guests. If you are interested in joining, please send an email to Caitlin.drake@goldstandard.org
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ARTICLE 6 WEBINAR SERIES
9 May 2023
16:00 (CEST)
First Eighteen Months: Reflections and Experience from Initial Efforts to Implement Article 6
Following the adoption of Article 6 rules at COP26, Gold Standard and partners - with funding from the German Government - have supported early efforts to implement Article 6 through piloting, knowledge-sharing among project developers, and mapping the state of Article 6 preparations in major markets across the world.
In this webinar, we will hear reflections and experiences from experts involved in this work, identifying lessons and recommendations to inform future implementation.
SPEAKERS
- Marc André Marr, Senior Consultant, Perspectives Climate Group Gmb
- David Hynes, Advisor, Adelphi
- Florian Eickhold, Senior Consultant, New Carbon Market and Climate Finance Platform (NCMP)
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
REDUCING EMISSIONS ONE GRAIN AT A TIME
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Gold Standard’s Chief Technical Office, Owen Hewlett, and Ali Efran, Vice Chair NetZeroAg, released an article highlighting solutions for making rice farming more climate-friendly and the role carbon credits schemes can play.
Rice is the world’s most important staple food crop, helping feed over four billion people. However, the grain highlights the central paradox of food production: feeding the world’s growing population is also polluting our earth, making us more vulnerable to climate change.
Solutions exist to make farming more climate-friendly: farm-level improvement in practices such as Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) can reduce methane emissions from rice fields by as much as 50% and cut water consumption by 30%. However, changing farming practices is easier said than done: "Waving the environmental banner simply does not work unless clear economic benefits can be demonstrated to farmers."
Carbon credit schemes are one way to increase farmers' income credibly. This is why Gold Standard is working on new methodologies, such as ‘Methane Emission Reduction by Adjusted Water Management Practice in Rice Cultivation’, to offer feasible solutions to reducing methane emissions.
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CONSUTATIONS
SAFEGUARDING PRINCIPLES & REQUIREMENTS UPDATE
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Gold Standard continues to put integrity at the core of its work and is continuously updating, advancing and requesting feedback on standard documents, such as the Safeguarding Principles and Requirements.
As part of a scheduled update, the Safeguarding Principles and Requirements have been updated to align with the Paris Agreement provisions and recent updates of the underlying environmental and social framework. In addition, the revised draft further strengthens the safeguards and requirements for core principles such as human rights, gender equality and women's empowerment, Indigenous people, labour rights and working conditions. Furthermore, the draft introduces a checklist for risk assessment for ease of implementation and application to help project developers.
We are now seeking feedback on the revisions and the assessment questions, until 27 April 2023.
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MICROSCALE SCHEME CONSULTATION
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Gold Standard have opened a public consultation on the proposal to mainstream the microscale project requirements within Gold Standard for the Global Goals.
The microscale scheme was introduced in 2017 to help smaller projects gain access to carbon finance through a simplified assurance process and methodologies. The programme has seen great success with over 900 microscale projects certified since its inception.
Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the market has evolved with new compliance schemes and regulatory bodies - such as CORSIA and the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s (IC-VCM) upcoming Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) – establishing new minimum criteria for standard setting and assurance. In order to be compliant under these evolving market conditions and continue supporting microscale projects in accessing climate finance, we are proposing to mainstream the microscale project requirements within GS4GG.
We are seeking feedback on the proposal to mainstream the microscale project requirements into Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) until 27 April 2023.
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Gold Standard are currently hiring across a range of teams to support the growing needs and opportunities across the environmental market and beyond.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Chief Operating Officer
In the context of an exciting period of growth for Gold Standard, we are looking for a Chief Operations Officer working with the CEO and the Executive Team to enable excellence through the delivery of operations functions (Digital Systems, Finance, Procurement, Governance and Human Resources).
This process will be managed by the recruitment firm Birdeo. You can find out more information and candidates can apply directly on their website.
TECHNICAL TEAM
- Associate - Assurance and Review Management (Land Use and Forests)
- Manager - Assurance and Review Management
- Officer - Standards Development & Innovation (LUF)
- Manager - Methodology Development & Innovations (Energy)
GROWTH & MARKET DEVELOPMENT TEAM
- Manager - Corporate Partnerships
- Manager - Strategy, PM&E
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS
- Short-term consultant to deliver Gold Standard’s Training Workshop for Adaptation Requirements
- Implementing Partner on Biodiversity approaches – environment scan and barrier analysis
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SUPPORT
GLOBAL CARBON CREDIT INVESTMENT SURVEY
Trove Research is launching a major new global survey of investment activity in the global carbon market. This market-wide survey will, for the first time, quantify the extent of corporate investments in carbon credits, how it is being deployed and the likely benefits for the climate, environment and society.
The survey is open to all market participants, including corporates, project developers, fund managers and institutional investors. To learn more and ask to participate in the survey, click the button below.
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