Comments to Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market Core Carbon Principles

I am writing in response to your call for public consultation on your CCPs and Assessment Framework as a Gates Scholar with a Ph.D. in climate policy from the University of Cambridge. As the ICVCM has stated, “the purpose of the CCPs and Assessment Framework is ultimately to provide a credible, rigorous, and readily accessible means of identifying high-quality carbon credits that create real, additional and verifiable climate impact with high environmental and social integrity,” and to accelerate a “just transition to 1.5 C.” Drawing from the best science and disinterested expertise available, I am writing to suggest that JREDD+ not be considered to meet the CCP criteria. There is no significant evidence that JREDD+ will result in real, additional and verifiable climate impact, nor can CCP assessments of JREDD+ standards adequately ensure high environmental and social integrity. Allowing JREDD+ to be considered for the CCP stamp would harm the integrity of the ICVCM, the CCPs, and the Assessment Framework and pose a considerable risk for the ICVCM program as a whole.