1© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

GOLD STANDARD Market report 2018

April 2019

Prepared by

Claire Willers

Ema Cima

2© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

Executive Summary

Gold Standard Project Pipeline

Gold Standard Certified Projects

A closer look at 2018

3

4

6

12

MARKET REPORT Table of Contents

3© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

19.5M 2017 < 2018

Carbon credits issued in 2018

+ 42%

9.4M

2017 < 2018

VERs retired in 2018 + 19%

16.8M

2017 < 2018

VERs issued in 2018 + 56%

98.4M

Total issued carbon credits

83.4M

Total issued VERs

47.6M

Total retired VERs

MARKET REPORT Executive Summary

This report provides the Gold Standard market data for 2018, including an overview of our project pipeline, our issuance and retirement figures and how our Standard has performed year-on-year. For previous versions of this report, please visit our publications page.

IN 2018

› Record high issuances in 2018, with 19.5 million emission reductions being issued from 44 different countries. 16.8 million voluntary Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) (56% increase over 2017) and 2.7 million labelled Certified Emission Reduction (CER) for the compliance market. › Growth primarily from wind, cookstove and one large biogas project. › 2018 saw record high voluntary retirements with 9.4 million emission reductions retired from our registry – a 19% increase over 2017.

IN TOTAL

› In total, Gold Standard has issued more than 98.4 million carbon credits. 83.4 million VERs and 15 million labelled CERs. › In total, 47.6 million tonnes of voluntary emission reductions have been retired from our registry. (57% of the total VERs issued)

4© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

+1700 projects in the Gold Standard project pipeline have the potential to save nearly 107 million tonnes of CO2 per year – more than double the annual emissions released by Switzerland.

GOLD STANDARD Project Pipeline

5© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

GOLD STANDARD Project Pipeline

When applying our standard, projects move through a project certification cycle. The below provides an overview of our projects and where they are within this cycle. 40% of our projects are fully certified and already issuing credits, with another quarter at the design certified stage – the final stage before issuance is approved.

Definitions

› New Project – Project concept submitted to Gold Standard. › Project Listed – Preliminary review, to check whether a project has the potential to conform to the Gold Standard requirements, successfully completed. › Project Validated – Up-front design, project documentation and monitoring plan successfully validated against the requirements of the standard by a third-party auditor. › Design Certified (Registered) - Validation audit completed and all documents reviewed and approved by Gold Standard, TAC and NGO Supporter Network. › Performance Certified (Issued) – Project cycle successfully completed, verification audit completed and all documents reviewed and approved by Gold Standard, TAC and NGO Supporter Network. Project is issued with relevant product (e.g. carbon credits).

411Design Certified

18M

estimated annual emission reduction

686Performance Certified

32.2M

estimated annual emission reduction

104Project Validated

5M

estimated annual emission reduction

269Project Listed

39M

estimated annual emission reduction

242New Project

12M

estimated annual emission reduction

figure 1 – Overview of projects in our project certification process

6© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

Gold Standard saw record high issuances + retirements in 2018, with 16.8 million VERs issued and 9.4 million retired by climate-conscious businesses and individuals around the world.

GOLD STANDARD Certified Projects

7© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Year-on-year comparisons

Nearly 700 projects have completed the certification process and have issued credits. In total Gold Standard has issued 98.4 million emission reductions: 15 million Certified Emission Reduction (CER) labels for the compliance market and 83.4 million Verified Emission Reductions (VERs) for the voluntary market. For retirements, 47.6 million voluntary credits have been permanently retired.

Figure 2 shows the year-on-year issuance figures for both VERs and CER labels. It also captures the annual number of voluntary retirements for Gold Standard VERs. These figures have steadily increased over the past decade, with record high VER issuances and retirements in 2018.

figure 2 – Issuance and retirment figures by year

VERs and CERs

TOTAL ISSUED

VERs

TOTAL RETIRED

CERs

VERs

tonnEs

yEaR 2009 20102008 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

2M

4M

6M

8M

10M

12M

14M

16M

18M

20M

8© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

› §v

GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Scope of certified projects

Figure 3 shows the scope of Gold Standard certified projects, by tonnes of CO2eq saved and by number of projects. The data includes both VERs + CER labels.

figure 3 – Gold Standard certified projects by project type (VERs and CER labels)

Wind Cookstove WasteManagement

WaterPurification

HouesholdBiogas Solar Industrial

BiomassEE - Other Hydro Industrial

BiogasForestry(A/R) Geothermal EE -

AgricultureEE -

Domestic

5M

10M

15M

20M

25M

30M

200

150

100

50

120

186

21

98120

4319

736 26

122 6 3

98,426,767tonnes co2eq saved

TOTAL

699number of certified projects

TOTAL

ton

ne

s c

o2e

q s

av

ed

nu

mb

er o

f c

er

tif

ied p

ro

jec

ts

32,3

M

21,7

M

11,8

M

8,6

M

7,3M 4,1M

3,7M

2,3M

2,3M 2,1M

1,5M

0,4

M

0,1M

0,0

9M

9© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Shared value delivered

table 1 – Additional environmental and socio-economic benefits delivered per tonne of reduced CO2 emissions ( source - The Real Value of Robust Climate Action report )

Using the findings from the Net Balance report The Real Value of Robust Climate Action, commissioned by Gold Standard with support from WWF Switzerland (see table 1), at the end of December 2018 our issued projects have created nearly 5.5 billion dollars of value in benefits beyond carbon (see figure 4). This calculation takes into account only those project types studied within the report (e.g. household biogas, cookstove, water purification, wind and forestry (A/R) projects). It covers both the voluntary (VERs) and the compliance market (CER labels), and accounts for approximately 70% of our issued portfolio.

Biodiversity Balance of Payments

Employment Livelihood Health Impacts TOTAL

Forest restoration + decrease in deforestation

Increased access to renew-able energy + decreased reliance on energy imports

More job opportunities

Increased access to affordable + clean energy services

Improved air and water quality

Shared value created by project type per carbon credit.

Biogas $2 $7 $32 › $41

Water Filters $1 $117 › $118

Cookstoves$3 $93 $55 › $151

Wind $19 $2 › $21

Forestry (A/R) $150 $27 › $177

10© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

shaREd ValuE in million

pRojECt typE

GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Shared value delivered

figure 4 – Shared value created by project type and co-benefit for Gold Standard Certified (i.e. issued) Projects through 2018

Forestry (A/R)

Wind

Cookstoves

Water Filters

Biogas

› $299 M

› $952 M

› $678 M

› $270 M

› $3.2 BILLION

Gold Standard certified projects have created nearly $5.5 BILLION dollars in shared value for climate action + sustainable development.

biodiVERsity

balanCE of paymEnts

EmploymEnt

liVElihood

hEalth impaCts

11© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Global distribution of emission reductions

east africa 17’699’528

281’295

222’559

8’693’336

1’096’034

1’387’758

49’666

727’083

291’794

4’946’522

291’79

ERITREA

ETHIOPIA

KENYA

MADAGASCAR

MALAWI

MOZAMBIQUE

RWANDA

TANZANIA

UGANDA

ZAMBIA

central africa 108’015

53’860

40’596

13’559

CAMEROON

CHAD

CONGO

central america 4’667’994

747’591

34’572

580’862

17’511

1’905’492

84’579

669’404

627’983

ARUBA

COSTA RICA

GUATEMALA

HAITI

HONDURAS

MEXICO

NICARAGUA

PANAMA

south america 3’711’163

151’238

735’068

1’147’279

388’986

1’288’592

BOLIVIA

BRAZIL

CHILE

COLOMBIA

PERU

north america 5’526

5’526 UNITED STATES

east europe 898’974

421’264

477’710

BULGARIA

RUSSIAN FEDERATION

international (shipping)

171’049

oceania 1’123’731

100’010

637’706

285’463

100’552

AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND

NEW CALEDONIA

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

north africa 192’086

192’086 SUDAN

south africa 360’127

124’179

235’948

LESOTHO

SOUTH AFRICA

west africa 5’956’669

161’763

4’678’472

3’430

912’459

196’711

3’834

BURKINA FASO

GHANA

GUINEA

MALI

NIGERIA

TOGO

south asia 8’311’605

188’904

7’193’810

823’527

98’286

7’078

BANGLADESH

INDIA

NEPAL

PAKISTAN

SRI LANKA

south east asia 8’928’887

1’269’210

250’945

289’285

56’913

393’839

3’255’706

24’857

3’388’132

CAMBODIA

INDONESIA

LAOS

MYANMAR

PHILIPPINES

THAILAND

TIMOR-LESTE

VIET NAM

east asia 19’116’345

14’725’918

260’920

4’129’507

CHINA

MONGOLIA

TAIWAN

west asia 27’175’068

27’175’068 TURKEY

figure 5 – Emission reductions from Gold Standard certified projects by region

In total, Gold Standard has issued 98.4 million carbon credits from projects based in more than 60 different countries around the world. Figure 5 below provides an overview of where these emission reductions took place.

12© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

In 2018, Gold Standard issued credits for 19.5 million emission reductions – the equivalent of taking over 4 million cars off the road for a year.

GOLD STANDARD A closer look at 2018

13© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

› av

A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 Issuances and retirements for 2018 by quarter

Gold Standard projects issued a record high 19.5 million carbon credits in 2018, an increase of 42% in comparison to 2017. CER label issuances were down by 10%, however, VER issuances increased by 56%, with a total of 16.8 million VERs being issued throughout the year. Voluntary retirements were also at a record high, with 9.4 million (a 19% increase) credits being permanently retired.

table 2 – Gold Standard issuances and retirements for 2018 by quarter

› Q1 › Q2 › Q3 › Q4 › TOTAL

Issuance of CERs (compliance market)

› 567,807

-20%

› 1,178,650

60%

› 816,823

10%

› 106,480

-87%

› 2,669,760

-10%

Issuance of VERs (voluntary market)

› 3,977,085

+55%

› 4,884,500

+124%

› 5,079,291

+74%

› 2,851,414

-8%

› 16,792,290

+56%

TOTAL ISSUANCES › 4,544,892

+38%

› 6,063,150

+108%

› 5,896,114

+61%

› 2,957,894

-24%

› 19,462,050

+42%

Retirement of VERs (voluntary market)

› 2,378,637

+1%

› 2,201,496

+8%

› 2,307,747

+65%

› 2,530,185

+17%

› 9,418,065

+19%

14© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

› av

A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 issuance + retirement volumes by project type

REtiREd VERs

issuEd VERs

REtiREmEnt/issuanCE Ratio

Figure 6 shows the VER issuances and retirement volumes by project type. In 2018, Afforestation/Reforestation (A/R) projects, biomass, domestic energy efficiency (EE) projects such as energy saving lamps and heating, and waste management projects all retired more credits than were issued. Both wind and cookstove projects issued double the amount of credits in comparison to 2017.

figure 6 – Issuances and retirements by project type

WasteManagement

WaterPurification

HouesholdBiogas

SolarBiomass EE -Other HydroIndustrialBiogas

Forestry(A/R)

GeothermalEE -Domestic

Cookstove Wind

1M

2M

3M

4M

5M

6M

15© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 issuance volumes by location

central africa 33’559

east africa 4’081’109

east asia 2’339’567

south asia 2’327’287

south east asia 2’106’208

west asia 4’319’495

oceania 29’144

international (shipping) 44’264

central america 1’045’867

south america 1’513’923

>500

<500

<1M

<3M

north africa 60’833

south africa 47’357

west africa 1’513’437

figure 7 – Issuance volumes by location

In 2018, we issued carbon credits from projects based in 44 different countries around the world. The graph below provides an overview of where these issuances took place.

16© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 retirement volumes by location

figure 8 – Retirement volumes by region

Figure 8 provides insights into which regions are retiring credits from which countries. In 2018, 88% of the credits retired were by organisations based in Europe, namely, Germany (27%), Switzerland (21%), the Netherlands (17%) and the United Kingdom (16%). They mainly supported projects based in Africa and Asia.

African retirements

American retirements

Asian retirements

European retirements

Oceanian retirements

3'029'899

1'236'617

3'761'003

9'657

37'743

International

Asia 59'812

27'799

45'376

22'350 Oceania

7'556

Europe 223'854

1'084 1'08

110’760Africa

America 455'995

301'568

96'992

17© Copyright 2019 Gold Standard

market report 2018

We hope you find this data of value.

We would like to evolve and improve this report over time and welcome your comments or suggestions.

Please send any feedback to help@goldstandard.org

help@goldstandard.org

+41 (0) 22 788 7080

@goldstandard

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