The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) has recently unveiled comprehensive new guidelines aimed at assisting businesses in leveraging carbon credits to achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate objectives. Revealed during IETA’s annual European Climate Summit, the ‘Guidelines for High Integrity Use of Carbon Credits’ set forth clear recommendations for their application in corporate environmental strategies.
View from below of a forest path. AI generated picture.
These guidelines emphasise the importance of integrating carbon credits as part of a broader approach that includes significant efforts to directly reduce carbon emissions across various sectors. Companies are encouraged to set ambitious, achievable goals for both the short and long term to ensure meaningful impact.
While the new guidelines provide a general framework for using carbon credits, they stop short of detailing specific methodologies for crafting net-zero roadmaps. Andrea Abrahams, IETA’s managing director for voluntary carbon markets, highlighted a concerning statistic: 81% of the world's largest companies do not yet have net-zero targets in place.
Read more: Era of revolution: groundbreaking carbon market development
This guidance release coincides with recent developments at the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which also issued new statements on the use of carbon credits for managing Scope 3 emissions. This has led to internal discussions and subsequent clarifications from the SBTi Board, emphasising that any credit use must be rigorously evidence-supported.
Read more: Groundbreaking: SBTi includes Scope 3 emissions in environmental certificates
The strategic release of these guidelines by IETA marks a significant moment in the business and environmental landscape, pointing towards increased recognition of the vital role that carbon credits (carbon units) and the voluntary (verified) carbon market play in achieving net-zero objectives. This comes at a time when the corporate world is urgently called to align more closely with global sustainability targets, aiming for a comprehensive strategy that combines direct emission reductions with the strategic use of carbon offsets.
These recent developments offer a significant opportunity for DGB Group, a provider of premium carbon units, and for companies wanting to address their carbon footprint. As businesses increasingly search for dependable methods to compensate for emissions across their entire value chain, DGB's verified carbon units are ideally suited to meet these emerging demands. Our carbon units are crafted not only to adhere to stringent standards but also to help clients fulfil their sustainability objectives while helping to restore nature. These market developments could redefine the corporate environmental strategy landscape, likely boosting the market value of carbon units and reinforcing the importance of high-quality offsets like those of DGB. This poses the ideal opportunity for businesses to act now and benefit from the carbon market expansion.
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