A New Era in Climate Policy: Gold Standard and GGGI Launch Innovative Policy Certification Programme

Gold Standard and GGGI announce development of world’s first programme for certification and crediting of policy approaches under Gold Standard for the Global Goals.

Gold Standard, the global standard for climate and sustainable development interventions, and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), an international, inter-governmental organisation dedicated to supporting sustainable economic growth, have today announced a new collaborative programme. This programme will enable the certification and crediting of mitigation outcomes from policy approaches under Gold Standard for the Global Goals.

This initiative represents a significant step forward in supporting governments in achieving impact at scale under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. It aims to facilitate transformation at the national or sub-national level through policy approaches, an innovative route for governments to deliver impact.

Margaret Kim, CEO of Gold Standard, said:

"Gold Standard is always looking for new ways to leverage the expertise we have built up over the last 20 years to drive impact at an ever-greater scale. Through the creation of a first-of-its-kind framework to certify and issue credits for the policy changes of governments, this collaboration with GGGI will facilitate a new era of international cooperation.”

Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of GGGI said:

“We’re pleased to pioneer scaled-up approaches under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement through the launch of this collaboration. This partnership represents the spirit of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and is a testament to the magnified impact voluntary cooperation can provide to accelerate mobilization of finance to transform countries’ economies toward environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive green growth.”

Gold Standard is developing new requirements to facilitate this process. Under these policy approaches, Gold Standard will certify the climate and sustainable development impacts achieved as a direct result of the introduction of new policy or regulations, particularly in the energy or land use sectors. The credits generated from these impacts, in many cases, are expected to be authorised as Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs) under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. This will allow countries to receive the financing needed to introduce and implement new policies to drive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate other co-benefits, with the financing country able to count resulting emission reductions towards its own Paris Agreement target.

This marks a shift from traditional market approaches, where activities are certified for the impacts they achieve that exceed requirements under policy or regulations.

The development of this programme is backed by GGGI, which is supporting numerous countries in building capacity and implementing Article 6.

Gold Standard plans to develop these new requirements throughout 2023, with a view to them being ready for application in 2024.

About GGGI

Headquartered in Seoul, Republic of Korea, GGGI is a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization - with 45 Member States and over 20 countries and regional integration organization(s) in the process of accession - dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies.  GGGI’s carbon pricing programs support Members access carbon finance through origination of mitigation projects and policies, strengthening of stakeholder understanding and decision-making capacities, and facilitation of Article 6 transactions between buyers and sellers. Through its innovative new initiative Carbon Transaction Facility (CTF), GGGI aims to scale up readiness support and accelerate Article 6 implementation globally. Further information on GGGI’s events, projects and publications can be found on www.gggi.org.