A VER is a Voluntary or Verified Emissions Reduction. VERs are emission credits which are generated outside of the Kyoto protocol and cannot be used within the Kyoto Protocol or the EU ETS (European Union Emissions Trading Scheme), yet still represent a reduction of 1 ton of CO2e.
There are a number of different types and standards of VER. The following are the most popular:
THE GOLD STANDARD FOR VERS
A WWF-led consortium that felt that existing standards for projects did not require sufficient contribution to sustainable development (SD) in the countries hosting the projects developed the Gold Standard (GS). The standard only covers renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, and specifically excludes forest and land use projects (due to permanence concerns).
All VGS projects must be verified by United Nations accredited independent body and generally trade at a considerable premium to other voluntary credit types. A registry to track VGS credits is currently under development.
CCAR – CALIFORNIA CLIMATE ACTION REGISTRY’S CLIMATE ACTION RESERVE
The California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) was originally established as a non-profit voluntary registry for VERs in the US. It has now launched the Climate Action Reserve, which will continue to develop these protocols, and register projects that meet their requirements. Only US projects are eligible.
VOLUNTARY CARBON STANDARD (VCS)
Launched by The Climate Group, IETA and the World Economic Forum this is currently the most popular voluntary standard, having won almost one quarter of the market demand. VCS-certified credits are called VCUs (Voluntary Carbon Units). The VCS aims to standardize the market, increasing fungibility and create a basic quality threshold.
VER+ BY TÜV SÜD
Established by TUV-SUD, a United Nations accredited project validator & verifier, in mid-2007. In comparison to CDM, VER+ provides more flexibility on methodologies, which speeds up validation and verification. However, critics have identified a potential conflict of interest with TUV SUD, though administering their own standard. Perhaps as a consequence of this, it does not have the wide-support of some of the other standards.
