A New Forest Carbon Standard

A New Forest Carbon Standard

What is Equitable Earth?

Equitable Earth is pioneering a revolutionary shift for the voluntary carbon market (VCM) with its new forest carbon standard to end deforestation and biodiversity loss, guided by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in the Global South.

Our focus is on ending tropical deforestation. Our goal is to unlock climate finance directly to Indigenous Peoples and forest communities, and countries in the Global South. We are committed to making the economics work first and foremost for the forest communities who are the vanguard of conservation for climate action.

To do this, we are creating a new standard and platform for the voluntary carbon market. Our standard will guide the rapid development of community-led forest conservation projects through a rigorous process that verifies equity, transparency and quality every step of the way.

We will certify and issue high quality Forest Carbon Credits. We will facilitate the rapid development of community-led forest conservation that protects the interests of forest communities. We will issue credits based on robust new methodologies for carbon and overall impact measurement – using the best available data in partnership with governments, leading scientists and monitoring technology providers. Equitable Earth credits will reflect the full impact of the projects they fund: carbon + biodiversity + social and economic investments.

Equitable Earth will provide buyers with certified evidence that their credit purchases fund high quality projects with measurable impacts – enabling buyers to make valuable contribution claims beyond offsets.

Two girls on a bicycle in Southern Cardamom with three children in the distance — Filip C. Agoo

Why does climate action need Equitable Earth?

We are in the defining decade for the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. We need faster action and greater investment, both public and private. Protecting our rainforests is a critical dependency to all of the mitigation pathways with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Deforestation is an economic problem. Yet only a fraction of climate finance is reaching Indigenous Peoples and forest communities. Equitable Earth is committed to making the economics work first and foremost for the forest communities who are at the vanguard of conservation for climate action.

We need to move money directly to forest communities to fund their own (“self-determined”) development priorities, as much as we need to fund the forest and biodiversity conservation activities themselves. One without the other is not a sustainable solution.

Today’s voluntary carbon market is in crisis. It is not meeting the needs of forest stakeholders – neither on the ground nor in the market. But we should not reject the good along with the bad. There is an urgent need to enlist private sector funding from climate-leading companies, and the VCM provides a scalable and immediately available market mechanism to do exactly this.