ICROA has conditionally endorsed the Global Carbon Council (GCC) into the ICROA Code of Best Practice. The ICROA Code is the established benchmark of quality for carbon management and offset service providers, and ICROA’s endorsement of credible carbon standards demonstrates quality, integrity and credibility in the voluntary carbon market. GCC projects and credits will effectively be able to be used by ICROA members during the time frame of conditional endorsement.
“We are thrilled to include GCC within our Code and are excited to see the operationalisation of the programme. We look forward to working with the team at GCC as we believe that it has the potential for real, credible and impactful emissions reductions,“ says Claire Mizutani, Director at ICROA. The conditional endorsement will allow for the programme to be used within the Code and once the threshold operational values are achieved, will be up for full endorsement.
GCC is an initiative of Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD, Qatar – is the first and only global voluntary GHG Offsetting Program based in MENA region and aims to contribute to a vision of sustainable and low carbon economy, and helping people to preserve the environment. Established in 2016 and operational since 2019, GCC has received full approval under Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on 19 March 2021. GCC-issued carbon credits will be used for fully carbon neutral FIFA World Cup 2022 .
Dr. Yousef Al Horr, President-Global Carbon Council said, “We are delighted to receive conditional approval of ICROA, and are confident of receiving its full approval based on experience needed in terms of number of projects registered and carbon credits issued. GCC, with two most important endorsements- CORSIA and ICROA, operates a robust carbon offsetting program to deliver high quality carbon credits, and wishes to serve corporates and state actors in meeting their carbon neutrality goals as well as raising the ambition of global climate mitigation drive.”
GCC is receiving a lot of attention from project owners from various countries including Turkey, India, Oman, Jamaica, Serbia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Vietnam, Kenya, South Africa, Canada, USA, Belgium and China. There are 23 projects submitted to GCC and several in pipeline of submission. These includes wide diversity of project types such as: Renewables (Solar, wind, hydro, biogas); sewage treatment and palletization; composting of animal manure; biogas generation and power generation from animal manure and agro-industry waste; energy efficiency in pumping system for produced water in oil & gas industry; agricultural pump efficiency improvement and renewable energy application; energy efficient household lights; LED streetlights; district cooling systems etc. GCC registry is being targeted by several interested buyers including corporates, traders, brokers, banks, exchanges etc. GCC, apart from allowing CDM methodologies for its projects, is planning to develop several methodologies, standards and tools in the area of carbon capture & storage/utlization, forestry, soil carbon, agriculture etc.
