Scaled‑up crediting approaches to deliver climate change mitigation results

Carbon credit markets are flexible tools that can incentivise greenhouse gas mitigation at different scales. Historically, most carbon credits have been generated at the project level, but crediting approaches at larger scales are emerging. These approaches can operate across entire jurisdictions, sectors or policies, placing governments at the centre of the crediting approach. This enables a wider range of mitigation efforts, including government strategies, policies and enforcement. For scaled-up crediting to effectively support climate change mitigation, approaches must be designed and implemented with a high level of integrity. This paper examines key integrity considerations in scaled-up crediting, with a focus on environmental integrity in jurisdictional forest crediting. The analysis highlights that scaled-up crediting can help address certain integrity risks associated with project-based crediting, but considerable methodological and implementation challenges remain. The paper presents strategic considerations for donor governments to help ensure that scaled-up crediting approaches become more effective tools for climate change mitigation.