Male blue-winged damselfly (Calopteryx splendens) on a leaf. Credits: myclimate/Sebastian Eppler
The Core Carbon Principles were drawn up as a guarantee of quality by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), an independent organisation. The Gold Standard, an important certification standard for carbon credits (CO2 certificates), has made the important decision to align its methodologies for project types that reduce the use of non-renewable biomass with the CCP (with this being mandatory from 2026). This marks an essential step towards greater quality and integrity in the voluntary carbon market. At myclimate, we welcome this development: we are committed to balanced methodologies that guarantee both a high level of quality and practical feasibility. myclimate has been calling for stronger regulation of voluntary carbon markets and methodological standardisation for some time now.
The challenge for project developers lies in the fact that the adapted methods for calculating the non-renewable fraction of biomass (fNRB) mean that the values for this factor are significantly lower. In turn, a clean cooking project will generat far fewer CO2 certificates under the adapted methodology. This will trigger a shortage of CO2 certificates from these projects and will probably also lead to a rise in credit prices in the future.
Nevertheless, myclimate is convinced that continuously improving the methodologies and working closely with our partners will enable a more robust and trustworthy market for high-quality carbon credits to emerge in the long term. For this reason, myclimate has decided to start gradually applying the new calculation methodologies even during the voluntary transition period. To this end, we are in constant contact with our project partners on the ground.
Initially, nothing will change for companies that rely on myclimate projects for voluntary CO2 reduction beyond their own value chain; certificates from previous years remain valid. We also expect to be able to continue fulfilling long-term contracts. Due to the anticipated shortage of certificates, prices are projected to rise in the medium term so that we can continue to cover our project costs. However, this is more than offset by the higher quality and integrity of the individual certificates. This removes the basis for the accusation of over-crediting that has been made in the media in the past.
myclimate will continue to play a leading role in promoting climate protection projects that meet the highest standards, while making a measurable contribution to sustainable development.
The Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) were developed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) to identify, disclose and promote high-quality CO2 certificates. They form the basis for the ICVCM, which determines whether carbon credits and carbon standards meet quality and integrity requirements.
The CCPs comprise ten basic, science-based principles in three main areas:
These principles ensure that carbon credits actually lead to measurable, verifiable and sustainable emissions reduction while having a positive impact on local communities.
One key aspect of the CCP guidelines on the applicable methodologies relates to the use of the “fraction of non-renewable biomass” (fNRB). This value is a decisive parameter for measuring the impact of clean cooking projects and other endeavours that focus on protecting the climate by reducing or completely replacing the use of firewood. The fNRB value indicates the share of non-renewable biomass in total fuelwood consumption. Only the non-renewable biomass saved, i.e. the wood that is lost from forests without being replaced (re-growth to the same extent), can be counted towards emissions reduction.
Determining the fNRB value has always been a complex task and depends on many local factors. For CCP-compatible projects, the previous calculation methods have been replaced by a new model, the modelling fuelwood savings scenario (MoFuSS). At the moment, project developers are limited to standardised regional or national values; in the future, these could be supplemented by project-specific scenarios calculated with the MoFuSS tool. Compared to the previous calculation methods, these are significantly lower – by 50–90%. The Gold Standard, as one of the most important quality-oriented standards for climate protection projects, has decided to apply this methodology.
myclimate fundamentally welcomes the standardisation and unification of calculation methods. At the same time, we are committed to ensuring that the models currently available are constantly being honed and refined in accordance with the latest scientific findings, and that these developments can also be reflected in future methodologies in a timely manner. In turn, this will help to avoid the discrepancy between the state of research and the state of the calculation methods, which has led to criticism of “over-crediting” in the past.
The use of the new calculation methods for fNRB values will significantly restrict the supply of Gold Standard-certified carbon credits. According to initial estimates, this could lead to a sizeable drop in supply. There are several reasons for this:
It is important to note that more conservative averages do not automatically lead to the climate change impact being assessed more accurately: they merely reduce the risk of overestimating the impact. At the same time, uniform standards based on very conservative basic assumptions will ensure more trust and comparability on the market and largely eliminate the frequent accusation of “over-crediting”, i.e. the issuance of too many certificates that do not reflect the real impact on the climate. This offers companies, in particular, an opportunity to communicate more actively about their voluntary climate protection efforts beyond their own value chain, without running the risk of being accused of greenwashing by the media or activists.
myclimate projects are usually planned to run for a fixed window of at least five years. The aim of the calculation is for the expenses of implementing the projects (e.g. manufacturing, distributing and repairing stoves) to be covered by the sale of the certificates over this five-year period. If a project now generates fewer certificates as a result of the specifications for the calculation parameters being revised, it can be expected that the price per certificate will probably increase in many projects in the future so that the costs can be covered at the end of the project period and to ensure long-term climate protection.
myclimate has decided to roll out the new methodology for project certification as early as 2025, if possible, even though the Gold Standard does not require this to be undertaken until 2026. To this end, the myclimate project team is in close contact with project partners on the ground so we can jointly analyse the impact and make any necessary adaptations. We support our partners in:
The aim is to promote a constructive dialogue between all stakeholders to ensure that the higher standards do not come at the expense of project feasibility, but lead to a real improvement in climate change impact.
From now on, myclimate will increasingly use certificates that comply with the Core Carbon Principles. We believe that these higher standards will lead to greater confidence in the voluntary carbon market in the long term.
The Gold Standard’s decision to make its clean cooking methodologies CCP-compliant confirms our long-standing collaboration and focus on projects aligned with this standard. It underlines the quality of the projects we support.
We remain true to our goal of combining effective climate protection with sustainable development. We will continue to invest in high-quality projects that not only reduce emissions, but also have a positive impact on local communities, the environment and biodiversity.
In order to generate credits with the CCP quality label, the certification standard must first be recognised by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market. The Gold Standard, one of the largest and most important certification standards with a clear focus on high project quality, was one of the first standards to be included in the programme in 2024. In a second step, the standards must then submit methodologies for certifying different project types to ICVCM for review. Only once these methodologies have been individually “approved” can projects that generate credits with these methodologies be awarded the CPP quality label.
CCP-labelled credits can now be issued for projects that conserve biomass by using stoves with improved efficiency. However, in order to meet the strict quality criteria of the CPP programme, existing projects must satisfy certain criteria that go beyond the current methodologies. For clean cooking projects, this concerns a revision of a calculation factor indicating the proportion of non-renewable biomass in the biomass saved, in particular.
The Gold Standard – as the leading benchmark for high quality – has therefore determined that the additional criteria for meeting the CCP requirements will be mandatory for all projects from January 2026; this will not be left as optional. This will also affect some of the projects supported by myclimate and will involve a great deal of effort.
However, we very much welcome this adaptation and will roll it out immediately, as we expressly support a more uniform basis that contributes to greater certificate quality and integrity.
