On May 28th the U.S. Government sent a wave of confidence into the voluntary carbon markets with its commitment to the importance of high-quality credits being a key driver to hitting our planet’s ambitious climate goals.
The heads of the Treasury, Energy and Agriculture Departments as well as President Joe Biden’s top climate and economic advisers announced a joint statement of policy and principles to guide participation in voluntary carbon markets as part of its broader efforts to encourage their development. The principles for “responsible participation” in offset markets outlined include strict standards to ensure that projects deliver real and quantifiable emissions reductions, monitoring to ensure projects do not harm local communities and that corporate buyers prioritize decarbonizing their own supply chains before opting for credits. This is consistent with the approach of Cloverly buyers who are focused on decarbonisation while concurrently addressing hard to abate residual emissions.
The U.S. Government is advising that we utilize every tool in the box to meet the global 1.5°C target. It’s therefore vital that there is a common understanding of what a high integrity carbon market looks like. We can continue to build the trust that companies follow to buy credits as well as common standards that will enable the market to scale and maximize its impact.
The statement highlighted three critical points:
1. Carbon markets can accelerate and deepen climate reduction efforts. By lowering costs and improving international cooperation, these tools achieve significantly more than isolated efforts. They are a force multiplier.
2. Communities around the world want to participate in voluntary carbon markets. This is particularly important for the communities that are on the front lines of climate change. We must prioritize solutions that are equitable, that are inclusive, and that are environmentally friendly.
3. Carbon markets help bridge the finance gap. Even with the money that governments have already put on the table we aren’t anywhere near the level of investment that’s required. This additional guidance and approach will help unlock much needed private capital, possibly tens of billions of dollars from the private sector by 2030.
Cloverly is the digital infrastructure for this voluntary carbon market enabling buyers to access high-quality carbon credits and project suppliers to run their business on purpose built software.
In addition our selection of carbon removal projects and portfolios are vetted by in-house climate scientists with market-leading proprietary due diligence, independence and Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV). This process enables corporate buyers to run their carbon credit strategy with complete confidence aligned with the mentioned guidelines.
This announcement comes at a time when more and more innovative technology is being introduced to the market. The ones that act now make the biggest impact later. Cloverly looks forward to helping lead this charge. Reach out to our team to learn more.
