market report 2018 GOLD STANDARD Market report 2018 April 2019 Prepared by Claire Willers Ema Cima 1
MARKET REPORT Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Gold Standard Project Pipeline 4 Gold Standard Certified Projects 6 A closer look at 2018 12 2
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) 19.5M Carbon credits issued in 2018 9.4M + 42% 2017 < 2018 16.8M VERs retired in 2018 + 19% VERs issued in 2018 + 56% 2017 < 2018 2017 < 2018 Total issued carbon credits 98.4M Total retired VERs 47.6M Total issued VERs 83.4M 3
GOLD STANDARD Project Pipeline +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. 4
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. 242 New Project estimated annual emission reduction 12M 411 Design Certified estimated annual emission reduction 18M 269 Project Listed estimated annual emission reduction 39M figure 1 Overview of projects in our project certification process 104 Project Validated estimated annual emission reduction 5M 686 Performance Certified estimated annual emission reduction 32.2M 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). 5
GOLD STANDARD Certified Projects 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. 6
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. 20M 18M 16M 14M 12M 10M 8M 6M 4M 2M TOTAL ISSUED VERs and CERs TOTAL RETIRED VERs tonnes year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 VERs figure 2 Issuance and retirment figures by year CERs 7
v GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Scope of certified projects tonnes CO2eq saved 30M 25M 20M 15M 10M 5M 32,3M 21,7M 11,8M 8,6M 7,3M 4,1M 3,7M 2,3M 2,3M 2,1M 1,5M 0,4M 0,1M 0,09M 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. TOTAL tonnes CO2eq saved 98,426,767 Wind Cookstove Waste Water Management Purification Houeshold Biogas Solar Industrial Biomass EE - Other Hydro Industrial Biogas Forestry (A/R) Geothermal EE - Agriculture EE - Domestic TOTAL number of certified projects 50 100 150 120 21 98 120 43 19 7 36 26 12 2 6 3 number of certified projects 699 200 186 figure 3 Gold Standard certified projects by project type (VERs and CER labels) 8
GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Shared value delivered 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 renewable 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 Water Filters Cookstoves Wind Forestry (A/R) $2 $7 $32 $41 $1 $117 $118 $3 $93 $55 $151 $19 $2 $21 $150 $27 $177 table 1 Additional environmental and socio-economic benefits delivered per tonne of reduced CO2 emissions ( source - The Real Value of Robust Climate Action report ) 9
GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Shared value delivered project type Biogas Water Filters $299 M $952 M Gold Standard certified projects have created nearly $5.5 BILLION dollars in shared value for climate action + sustainable development. Cookstoves $3.2 BILLION Wind $678 M biodiversity balance of payments employment Forestry (A/R) $270 M livelihood health impacts shared value in million figure 4 Shared value created by project type and co-benefit for Gold Standard Certified (i.e. issued) Projects through 2018 10
GOLD STANDARD CERTIFIED PROJECTS Global distribution of emission reductions 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. north america 5 526 UNITED STATES central america 4 667 994 ARUBA COSTA RICA GUATEMALA HAITI HONDURAS MEXICO NICARAGUA PANAMA 5 526 747 591 34 572 580 862 17 511 1 905 492 84 579 669 404 627 983 east europe 898 974 BULGARIA RUSSIAN FEDERATION north africa 192 086 SUDAN central africa 108 015 CAMEROON CHAD CONGO 421 264 477 710 192 086 53 860 40 596 13 559 west asia 27 175 068 TURKEY south asia 8 311 605 BANGLADESH INDIA NEPAL PAKISTAN SRI LANKA 27 175 068 188 904 7 193 810 823 527 98 286 7 078 east asia 19 116 345 CHINA MONGOLIA TAIWAN south east asia 8 928 887 CAMBODIA INDONESIA LAOS MYANMAR PHILIPPINES THAILAND TIMOR-LESTE VIET NAM 14 725 918 260 920 4 129 507 1 269 210 250 945 289 285 56 913 393 839 3 255 706 24 857 3 388 132 south america 3 711 163 BOLIVIA BRAZIL CHILE COLOMBIA PERU 151 238 735 068 1 147 279 388 986 1 288 592 west africa 5 956 669 BURKINA FASO GHANA GUINEA MALI NIGERIA 161 763 4 678 472 3 430 912 459 196 711 east africa 17 699 528 ERITREA ETHIOPIA KENYA MADAGASCAR MALAWI 281 295 222 559 8 693 336 1 096 034 1 387 758 oceania 1 123 731 AUSTRALIA NEW ZEALAND NEW CALEDONIA PAPUA NEW GUINEA 100 010 637 706 285 463 100 552 TOGO 3 834 MOZAMBIQUE 49 666 RWANDA 727 083 south africa 360 127 LESOTHO 124 179 TANZANIA UGANDA ZAMBIA 291 794 4 946 522 291 79 international (shipping) 171 049 SOUTH AFRICA 235 948 figure 5 Emission reductions from Gold Standard certified projects by region 11
GOLD STANDARD A closer look at 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. 12
av A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 Issuances and retirements for 2018 by quarter Issuance of CERs (compliance market) Issuance of VERs (voluntary market) Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 TOTAL 567,807-20% 3,977,085 +55% TOTAL ISSUANCES 4,544,892 Retirement of VERs (voluntary market) +38% 2,378,637 +1% 1,178,650 60% 4,884,500 +124% 6,063,150 +108% 2,201,496 +8% 816,823 10% 5,079,291 +74% 5,896,114 +61% 2,307,747 +65% 106,480-87% 2,851,414-8% 2,957,894-24% 2,530,185 +17% 2,669,760-10% 16,792,290 +56% 19,462,050 +42% 9,418,065 +19% 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 13
av A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 issuance + retirement volumes by project type 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. 6M 5M 4M 3M 2M 1M issued VERs retired VERs retirement/issuance ratio Forestry (A/R) Houeshold Biogas Industrial Biogas Biomass Cookstove EE - EE - Other Geothermal Hydro Domestic Solar Waste Management Water Purification Wind figure 6 Issuances and retirements by project type 14
A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 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 east asia 2 339 567 took place. south asia 2 327 287 >500 south east asia 2 106 208 <500 north africa 60 833 central africa 33 559 west asia 4 319 495 <1M central america 1 045 867 south africa 47 357 east africa 4 081 109 oceania 29 144 south america 1 513 923 west africa 1 513 437 international (shipping) 44 264 <3M figure 7 Issuance volumes by location 15
A CLOSER LOOK AT 2018 2018 retirement volumes by location 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 America 455'995 Africa 110 760 Europe 223'854 3'029'899 96'992 3'761'003 45'376 Asia 59'812 (16%). They mainly supported projects based in Africa and Asia. 1'236'617 301'568 27'799 7'556 Oceania 22'350 9'657 African retirements International American retirements 37'743 Asian retirements European retirements 1'084 Oceanian retirements figure 8 Retirement volumes by region 16
market report 2018 We hope you find this data of value. help@goldstandard.org We would like to evolve and improve this report over time +41 (0) 22 788 7080 and welcome your comments or suggestions. @goldstandard Please send any feedback to help@goldstandard.org International Environment House 2 Chemin de Balexert 7-9 1219 Châtelaine SWITZERLAND 17