Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative launch and board appointment for BVRio Director

BVRio invites you to the launch of the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI), a multi-stakeholder platform bringing together representatives of civil society, businesses, Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and governments. It aims to establish guidance on how voluntary carbon credits can be used and claimed as part of credible net-zero decarbonisation strategies.

Register to attend the launch event on Thursday 29th July 2021.

BVRio Director, Pedro Moura Costa, has joined the steering committee of the VCMI Co-Chaired by Rachel Kyte, Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Tariye Gbadegesin, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investment LTD.

Moura Costa commented, “with the exponential growth of activity in the voluntary carbon markets, there is an urgent need to ensure it works for the robustness and environmental integrity of this sector. I am pleased to be able to contribute to this guidance.”

As part of this work, in a strategic partnership with the UNDP Climate and Forests Team, the VCMI will engage tropical forests countries in participatory dialogues to develop Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) Access Strategies. The aim of these strategies is to enable these countries to bring high-integrity carbon credits into the VCM. The VCMI will work alongside existing initiatives that are aimed at ensuring the integrity of the VCM, providing an avenue for representatives of these efforts to connect, coordinate, and, as appropriate, champion their contributions to ensuring voluntary carbon markets make a significant and meaningful contribution to limiting global temperature from rising to 1.5oC above pre-industrial levels.

The initial phase of VCMI will culminate with the publication of a Consultation Report in July 2021. Following a global consultation phase, which will run until September 2021, the VCMI will launch a final report ahead of COP26.