ARLINGTON, VA — February 1, 2021 — The Secretariat of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) announces the commencement of a public stakeholder consultation period for version 2.0 of The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES), ART’s rigorous Standard to quantify emission reductions from reduced deforestation and forest degradation, or REDD+. ART’s objective is to provide confidence in the environmental and social integrity of jurisdictional forest emission reductions, thus creating credits that are fungible in carbon markets with those from other sectors and catalyzing new, large-scale finance for REDD+.

Key updates to TREES 2.0 include:

  • Expanding crediting for jurisdictional-scale removals from the establishment of new forests;
  • Adding an innovative crediting approach to reward Participants that meet the new TREES criteria for High-Forest, Low Deforestation (HFLD) jurisdictions;
  • Proposing an eligibility pathway for Indigenous Peoples to be included as distinct subnational accounting areas under a national Participant or as direct Participants in ART;
  • Revising the approach to quantify the uncertainty of emission reductions and removals by applying a conservative deduction based on the risk of over-crediting; and
  • Clarifying how TREES addresses the avoidance of double claiming and adding new, comprehensive requirements for avoiding double counting with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

Other requirements as specified in TREES 1.0 to credit eligible national and subnational jurisdictions for emission reductions remain the same. These include reducing deforestation and forest degradation emissions below a conservative historical baseline and meeting rigorous and comprehensive requirements for monitoring, reporting and independent verification; mitigation of leakage and reversal risks; avoidance of double counting; assurance of robust environmental and social safeguards; and the transparent issuance of serialized units on a public registry.

All stakeholders are invited and strongly encouraged to submit written feedback and comments to the updates in TREES 2.0 to REDD@Winrock.org by April 2, 2021. The Secretariat and Board will review stakeholder comments, prepare responses, and incorporate changes into the Standard as appropriate prior to Board approval and publication of TREES 2.0 later this year.

As part of the consultation process, the ART Secretariat is hosting a series of webinars to provide an overview of proposed updates in TREES 2.0 and gather questions and comments from stakeholders. Please follow the links below to register.

Monday, March 1, 2021, 10am ET (English)
Tuesday, March 2, 2021, 10am ET (Spanish)
Thursday, March 4, 2021, 12pm ET (Portuguese)

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