BLOCKED AVENUES FOR REDRESS: SHEDDING LIGHT ON CARBON MARKET GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS

A review of voluntary carbon market standards found that most have inadequate or non-existent grievance mechanisms, leaving local and indigenous communities vulnerable. Only Gold Standard and the Green Climate Fund's Independent Redress Mechanism were rated as having good mechanisms. The report details failures in accessibility, transparency, and independence for standards like Verra, CAR, and ACR, and notes that the Global Carbon Council lacks a mechanism entirely. It provides a framework of good practices and specific recommendations for these standards and the Paris Agreement's Article 6.4 Supervisory Body.

• The majority of assessed voluntary carbon market standards have grievance mechanisms that are either inadequate or non-existent, with only Gold Standard providing appropriate recourse for affected communities.
• The Global Carbon Council (GCC), based in Qatar, currently operates without any grievance mechanism despite having registered 18 projects and issued 543,389 credits as of 3 March 2023.
• Verra, Climate Action Reserve (CAR), and American Carbon Registry (ACR) have mechanisms that suffer from serious shortcomings in accessibility, transparency, predictability, independence, adequacy, and safeguards.
• Accessibility is severely limited for Verra, CAR, and ACR, as information is exclusively in English and difficult to find; additionally, Verra requires complainants to pay handling expenses unless the decision is in their favour.
• Gold Standard is identified as a frontrunner among voluntary standards due to its detailed 10-step process, public repository of past grievances, and practice of flagging projects under investigation on its website.
• The Green Climate Fund’s (GCF) Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM) is the highest quality model assessed, operating as a standalone institution independent from the GCF secretariat with proactive outreach in 14 languages.
• The Article 6.4 Supervisory Body must urgently establish an independent grievance and appeals process before registering any carbon crediting projects to ensure the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2023). BLOCKED AVENUES FOR REDRESS: SHEDDING LIGHT ON CARBON MARKET GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CMW_PB_Grievance-Mechanisms_v004-1.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. BLOCKED AVENUES FOR REDRESS: SHEDDING LIGHT ON CARBON MARKET GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS. 2023. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CMW_PB_Grievance-Mechanisms_v004-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=BLOCKED AVENUES FOR REDRESS: SHEDDING LIGHT ON CARBON MARKET GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS |date=March 2023 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CMW_PB_Grievance-Mechanisms_v004-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2023blocked, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{BLOCKED AVENUES FOR REDRESS: SHEDDING LIGHT ON CARBON MARKET GRIEVANCE MECHANISMS}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2023}, month = mar, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/CMW_PB_Grievance-Mechanisms_v004-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }