Meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is at the core of the new Gold Standard certification, in which certified projects must contribute to at least three SDGs. It is anticipated that the new standard will unlock billions of dollars of funding needed to scale-up climate and development projects around the globe, with a broad range of applications.
Gold Standard has long set the best practice benchmark for climate interventions, ensuring the highest levels of environmental integrity and sustainable development for projects in carbon markets. Now with new, ambitious and interconnected climate and development agenda shaped by the outcomes of the Paris Agreement, Gold Standard for the Global Goals will certify a range of independently-verified SDG Impacts in addition to its flagship carbon credits in a bid to accelerate progress toward climate security and sustainable development.
"The SDGs are becoming a huge priority for a range of public and private sector organisations, but accurately measuring and reporting progress has presented a major challenge." says Marion Verles, Chief Executive Officer of Gold Standard. "Our new standard quantifies and certifies the many additional benefits Gold Standard projects deliver beyond carbon mitigation – for example by providing access to clean energy and water, creating jobs, improving health or protecting natural habitats – providing those who run or fund projects with new opportunities to measure and report their impact."
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The new standard will continue to ensure projects meet the highest level of environmental integrity while additionally foregrounding key social issues the world must address. By creating a result-based measure for sustainable development, the Gold Standard for Global Goals de-risks investment and help the manage complexities of large-scale multi-intervention programme, unlocking the financial potential of sustainable development programmes.
For more information, read the full press release here (LINK) and visit the Gold Standard website.
