March 10, 2008
The Stockholm Environment announces the release of a comprehensive
new report on the voluntary carbon offset market.
Making Sense of the Voluntary Carbon Market:
A Comparison of Carbon Offset Standards
The report discusses the role of the voluntary carbon offset market. It provides an overview and guide to the most important currently available standards, using the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) as a benchmark. The report compares the standards side-by-side and outlines the most pertinent aspects of each. It also includes a handy one page reference table for a quick comparison of the standards. The evaluated standards are:
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Gold Standard (GS)
Voluntary Carbon Standard 2007 (VCS 2007)
VER+
Voluntary Offset Standard (VOS)
Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX)
Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCBS)
Plan Vivo System
ISO 14064-2
GHG Protocol for Project Accounting
The report was commissioned by WWF Germany and written by Anja Kollmuss (SEI-US), Helge Zink (Tricorona) and Clifford Polycarp (SEI-US.)
Download the Executive Summary