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261 results
Carbon Market Watch recommendations to Article 6 negotiators for SB 56
Carbon Market Watch argues that Parties should prioritize domestic mitigation over carbon credits and recommends strict transparency, science-based definitions for removals, and the establishment of an independent grievance body for Article 6 mechanisms.
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Document type: Briefing
Poor tackling: Yellow card for 2022 FIFA World Cup’s carbon neutrality claim
The report challenges the "carbon neutral" claim of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, finding that the estimated 3.6MtCO2e footprint likely underestimates actual emissions due to flawed accounting of stadium construction. It further argues that the carbon credits provided by the Global Carbon Council lack integrity due to non-additionality and that the event's mitigation measures, such as a desert turf farm, are not durable.
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Document type: Report
Approach to Quantify Net Material Emissions Impact of Renewable Energy Purchases
RMI proposes the RE Emissions Score to move beyond qualitative assessments of renewable energy procurement. The score calculates the percentage of Weighted Avoided Emissions relative to Total Induced Emissions, using marginal emissions factors and a procurement factor based on the ratio of Energy Attribute Certificate (EAC) costs to the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). This approach aims to incentivize companies to locate operations in low-emissions grids and fund new renewable capacity in high-emissions grids.
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Document type: Report
SETTING SCIENCE-BASED TARGETS IN THE SEAFOOD SECTOR
The document outlines the business case and technical process for seafood companies to adopt Science-Based Targets (SBTs) to mitigate climate change. It highlights that while seafood generally has a lower carbon footprint than land-based proteins, the industry faces significant risks from ocean warming and acidification. The guide details a process of data collection, GHG accounting using Life Cycle Assessments (LCA), and target setting through the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Key reduction strategies include the electrification of fishing vessels, the development of low-carbon aquaculture feed, and the reduction of air freight. It emphasizes that Scope 3 emissions—particularly from feed and transport—represent the largest challenge and require pre-competitive collaboration across the value chain.
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Document type: Guide
Principles for Blockchain-Based Emissions Reporting
RMI proposes a decentralized, open-source technical architecture to replace static, estimate-based carbon accounting with a blockchain-based system. The proposed system focuses on the exchange of primary emissions data at the product level, using 'digital twins' to track embodied carbon from source to sale. This approach aims to improve the veracity of Scope 3 emissions reporting and enable more informed procurement decisions to drive industrial decarbonization.
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Document type: Briefing
Reimagining Greenhouse Gas Disclosures
The document argues that current corporate ESG reporting and carbon accounting frameworks are inadequate for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions and demonstrating meaningful change. It highlights that disclosures typically focus only on the company level, rarely reporting measured emissions data for individual assets or products, which leaves supply chain emissions poorly understood and climate risk exposure misrepresented. The brief advocates for new carbon accounting principles to standardize methods across diverse sectors within supply chains to empower brands and consumers.
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Document type: Policy brief
Reimagining Greenhouse Gas Disclosures
The Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency (COMET) argues that current corporate GHG reporting, primarily based on the GHG Protocol, is insufficient for driving decarbonization because it relies on averages and corporate boundaries rather than actionable product-level data. To address this, COMET proposes shifting toward the use of primary data from direct suppliers, implementing fixed boundaries for comparability, and defining product boundaries that incentivize market-driven decarbonization. These principles aim to make Scope 3 emissions visible and traceable, facilitating a transition to zero-carbon production.
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Document type: Briefing
6 propositions pour une finance au service du climat
The document outlines six specific proposals to reform financial practices in France and the European Union to combat climate change. These include banning the financing of new fossil fuel projects, introducing a 'nutri-score' for the carbon impact of financial products, increasing capital requirements for banks supporting fossil fuels, aligning European Central Bank (ECB) operations with climate goals, ending export financing for hydrocarbons, and strengthening shareholder rights to influence corporate climate strategies.
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Document type: Statement
External Review of WRI Technical Annexes
The document details an external review of WRI's 2018-2022 Strategic Plan, evaluating its seven global challenges and core functions. It employs a mixed-methods approach, including 'Outcome Harvesting' and a 'Traffic Light System' to measure progress. Preliminary findings indicate that the Forests program is the strongest performer (95.9% achievement), while the Governance Center is partially on track (44% achievement). The review also assesses WRI's growth, the impact of COVID-19, and the integration of gender and social equity across its global operations, including specific assessments of its offices in Africa, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States.
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Document type: Report
Respecting the laws of physics PRINCIPLES FOR CARBON DIOXIDE REMOVAL ACCOUNTING
The report establishes four core principles for verifying 'real' carbon dioxide removals: sourcing carbon from the atmosphere, ensuring permanent storage (at least 200-300 years), conducting comprehensive life cycle assessments of all associated emissions, and ensuring net-negative results. It argues against the 'false equivalency' that one tonne emitted equals one tonne removed, noting that removals may only undo up to 90% of an emission's impact and cannot reverse certain climate damages like sea-level rise. The author emphasizes that CDR should supplement, not replace, deep decarbonization to prevent 'mitigation deterrence,' where the promise of future removals slows current emission cuts.
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Document type: Report
MDBs Pledged to Align Financial Flows with the Paris Agreement. They’re Not There Yet
The briefing argues that while multilateral development banks (MDBs) have made some progress in aligning direct investments with the Paris Agreement, they remain far from fulfilling their overall commitment. Key deficiencies include a lack of standardized fossil fuel exclusion policies, inconsistent greenhouse gas accounting, and a failure to align indirect investments and policy-based loans. The author emphasizes that MDBs must reform their financial instruments and engage in debt relief to ensure developing countries do not sacrifice climate action due to COVID-19 related debt burdens.
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Document type: Briefing
Beyond Carbon Credits
WWF International outlines a framework for high-impact nature-based solutions (NbS) for climate mitigation, emphasizing that interventions must simultaneously benefit human well-being, biodiversity, and the climate. The report argues against narrowly designing projects for carbon credits, instead advocating for landscape-scale or jurisdictional approaches that align with national strategies and the Paris Agreement. It provides a hierarchy for forest-related interventions—prioritizing REDD, then improved forest management, and finally afforestation, reforestation, and restoration—and details essential safeguards, including free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) for Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). To ensure integrity, the blueprint recommends rigorous due diligence to mitigate risks such as inflated baselines, leakage, and non-permanence.
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Document type: Report
PROGRESS ON THE NEW YORK DECLARATION ON FORESTS
The report finds that while the Paris Agreement has integrated forests into the international climate agenda, national ambitions in NDCs remain insufficient and often lack quantitative targets. Public finance for forest climate goals is a small fraction of the required amount, with 'grey' finance for deforestation-driving sectors vastly outweighing 'green' investments. While many countries have established REDD+ programs and robust monitoring systems, implementation is hindered by weak governance, widespread illegality, and a lack of secure land tenure for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs). The report recommends scaling up domestic and international finance, strengthening land rights, and expanding demand-side regulations in consumer countries to curb illegal deforestation.
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Document type: Report
COP26 Action Plan: Three Urgent Steps to Standardize Emissions Reporting
The report argues that current GHG accounting systems rely too heavily on approximations and are unsuitable for comparing scope 3 emissions between companies. To resolve this, RMI proposes a framework consisting of unified accounting principles that prioritize primary data, a technical architecture based on distributed ledger technology to track embodied carbon at the product level, and the creation of "digital twins" of carbon emissions to enable emissions to function as a unit of trade. This system aims to transform climate intelligence into actionable business intelligence and support the development of a global carbon market under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement.
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Document type: Report
COAL POWER FINANCE IN HIGH-IMPACT COUNTRIES
The document analyzes coal finance in 18 high-impact countries (HICs) with significant electricity access gaps. It finds that while global coal investment is declining, finance persists in HICs, largely driven by Chinese state-owned institutions and a few South Asian nations. The report argues that coal is misaligned with Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) due to long development timelines and high infrastructure costs, contrasting this with the efficiency of distributed renewable energy. It highlights the risk of stranded assets in Bangladesh and Pakistan and the operational hurdles facing coal in Africa, concluding that a shift toward renewables and finance-based carbon accounting is necessary to achieve net-zero goals.
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Document type: Briefing
COAL POWER FINANCE IN HIGH-IMPACT COUNTRIES
The document analyzes coal finance in 18 high-impact countries (HICs) in South Asia and Africa, highlighting that while global trends shift toward renewables, significant coal investment persists, largely driven by Chinese state-owned institutions. It argues that coal is an inefficient path to universal electricity access compared to distributed renewables and warns of stranded asset risks, citing overcapacity in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
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Document type: Briefing
Note d’information sur la Cible 8 du premier projet d’un cadre mondial de la biodiversité pour l’après-2020
Friends of the Earth International proposes a revised Target 8 for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The briefing argues that the target should focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and deforestation, ensuring mitigation measures do not harm biodiversity, and prioritizing ecosystem-based approaches. It specifically calls for the removal of a quantitative carbon sequestration goal of 10 GtCO2-e per year, arguing that carbon accounting is an imprecise metric for biodiversity and risks promoting monoculture plantations or the commodification of nature.
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Document type: Briefing
How Digitally Native GHG Tracking Can Drive Faster Climate Action
RMI proposes a framework for 'climate intelligence' based on four pillars: emissions visibility, standardized accounting, digitized infrastructure using distributed ledger technology, and the scaling of these standards in markets. The document highlights the need to harmonize over 250 existing GHG accounting methodologies to create a 'digital schema' for carbon attribution. A key initiative mentioned is Horizon Zero, funded by a $10 million grant from the Larsen Lam Climate Change Foundation, which aims to apply digital disclosure models from the cryptocurrency industry to heavy industrial sectors like steel and cement. The author contends that digitization will make GHG and ESG disclosures as seamless as financial accounting, aligning with emerging regulatory trends in the EU and US.
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Document type: Briefing
The Role of Biomass in Achieving Net Zero Call for Evidence
Ember's response to the UK government's call for evidence on biomass argues that the assumption of carbon neutrality for biomass power is scientifically unsupported and that such generation is more expensive than alternatives. The organization advocates for tightening sustainability regulations to exclude feedstocks from high-carbon or biodiverse forests and suggests that limited sustainable biomass should be diverted from the power sector toward construction and hard-to-abate industries. Ember also recommends unbundling residual and negative emissions budgets in UK carbon accounting and exploring lower-risk negative emissions routes, such as nature-based solutions and domestic energy crops on degraded land, over large-scale BECCS projects.
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Document type: Statement
Report on the activities of the Secretariat
The GCF Secretariat report for the first trimester of 2021 highlights a record funding approval of USD 1.2 billion at a single Board meeting (B.28) and a portfolio implementation rate of 73%. Key priorities include the 'DAE Action Plan' to increase funding for Direct Access Entities, the development of a Private Sector Strategy to catalyze adaptation finance, and the implementation of the 'GCF People Plan' to enhance institutional capacity. The report also details a long-term vision for collaboration with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and efforts to secure privileges and immunities through a potential relationship with the United Nations.
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Document type: Report