STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT 
 

PROJECT DEVELOPER OUTPUT REPORT 

Measures to address the challenges and opportunities identified in the project developer virtual roundtables and survey

The last few years have seen significant change in the voluntary carbon market. Recent growth in activity and demand has created new opportunities but has also put additional pressure on already limited resources and capacity. 
 
To fully understand what these current challenges and opportunities are and how we can better support our project developer community we convened a set of virtual roundtables and shared a survey to gather feedback and insight. 
 
This report synthesises the information received and provides detailed steps on the measures we already have in place as well as those that we are planning to implement to help address some of the issues and opportunities identified. This includes efforts to reduce certification timelines, improve stakeholder engagement and enhance our IT infrastructure. 
 
Key deliverables that we hope will significantly support project developers, include:  

1. Increased capacity to improve customer service:  Gold Standard has hired two additional staff within its standards development team and is in the process of recruiting four more in the coming months. This is alongside new admin support for the Registry and general helpdesk enquiries and a new Market Relations function to provide dedicated support, key account management, and improved stakeholder engagement. Finally, there are plans to recruit regional staff in Africa, Asia, and Latin America later this year, to provide more tailored support and boost engagement with stakeholders and partners in the continents on which our standard is used most.
    
2. Accelerate the preliminary review process: To expedite the timeline to list a project, Gold Standard has excluded preliminary reviews for new VPAs; expanded the checklist-based fast-track preliminary review to now include most project types; significantly reduced the information to be provided; deceased the timelines for responses; and SustainCERT has eliminated the need to book a review.  
    
3. Streamline and build capacity for validation and verification services: As well as developing a VVB Standard (soon to be published for consultation) to improve the consistency and quality of the validation and verification process for all projects, Gold Standard has recently issued a Request for Proposals for a delivery partner to help standardise reporting templates and implement measures that will streamline services to ensure continual improvement of certification quality whilst enabling more efficient, improved, and consistent reviews - including more specific, clearer, and timely feedback to project developers. 

 
This is just a first step in building more inclusive and tailored stakeholder engagement. We will be proactively reaching out to stakeholders and other market participants to build on this feedback, to better understand market considerations on new initiatives and programmes and to provide solutions that better support project development on the ground. 
 
We thank all those that took the time to participate in the virtual roundtables and the survey.
 

 RULE UPDATE 
 

REVISIONS TO ACCELERATE PRELIMINARY REVIEW ASSESSMENT 

Gold Standard continuously strives to make the certification process simpler for project developers, improving efficiency whilst maintaining robustness. To support this effort, and in response to recent feedback received and outlined above, we have introduced a rule update that: 

• Expands the scope of the standardised checklist to fast-track preliminary reviews for most project types, including retroactive projects
• Significantly reduces the information required for preliminary review 
• Expedites timelines for fast-track reviews (response in 14 days after completing the submission (i.e., documents submitted, and fees paid)
• Eliminates the need to book a review in advance 

This rule update is in addition to the new Preliminary Review Request (a checklist-based assessment) and the exclusion of preliminary reviews for new VPAs – see revised PoA Requirements



 

 REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS  
 

STREAMLINE AND BUILD CAPACITY FOR VALIDATION AND VERIFICATION SERVICES 

Gold Standard is seeking an organisation to develop standardised reporting templates to streamline the validation/verification process to better support Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs) and to help improve timelines for certification, whilst ensuring more efficient and consistent reviews in the future.

This work is part of a broader set of initiations that are being released to support the Gold Standard project development and certification process as per the report published above.

Closing date for submissions is 30 August 2022
 

 TEMPLATE  
 

SIMPLIFIED ANNUAL REPORT FORM  

All projects certified to Gold Standard for the Global Goals need to report their progress to Gold Standard annually if verification is less frequent. To simplify and speed up this process, we have modified the annual report form to introduce a checklist format. The form also includes guidance, references, as well as clarifications for when to submit the annual report.

 

 MARKET UPDATE  
 

ACTIVITIES IN INDIA 

Gold Standard is aware of recent announcements by the Government of India related to the establishment of a domestic carbon market, and the international transfer of carbon credits generated within its jurisdiction. The Gold Standard Secretariat is monitoring these developments closely, as well as policy developments in other countries and is available to speak to project developers that have questions.

Please contact help@goldstandard.org