Gap Analysis of the Environmental and Social Safeguard Requirements of Voluntary Carbon Market Crediting Programmes

This analysis, commissioned by the Foundation Development and Climate Alliance, assesses how 16 carbon crediting programmes in the voluntary carbon market address environmental and social (E&S) safeguards, benchmarked against the IFC Performance Standards and KfW's sustainability guidelines. It updates and expands a 2024 assessment by Öko-Institut with a framework of 82 criteria across the eight IFC Performance Standard categories, plus additional social criteria and benefit sharing. For each criterion it checks whether the requirement exists in a programme's general standard and whether it is carried through into the documents that project developers complete and validators assess.