With more than 10mn carbon credits expected to be issued in 2021, Qatar-based Global Carbon Council (GCC), a programme by Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (Gord) is listed among eight international programmes eligible to supply carbon credits to international airlines to meet their carbon neutral growth.
GCC by Gord is the first and only global voluntary GHG (greenhouse gas) offsetting programme of Mena region. Established in 2016 and operational since 2019, GCC received full approval under Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia) of United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on March 19 this year.
This approval is the recognition that GCC’s regulatory framework has all elements in place that assure real, additional and permanent emission reductions resulting from the projects registered by it and the Approved Carbon Credits (ACC) issued by GCC are indeed highly credible and environmentally integral. It also assures that ACCs can be safely used by international airlines to meet their commitment of carbon neutral growth under Corsia and by other organisations to meet their commitment for carbon neutrality of their products, services, events and activities.
With full approval, GCC is listed among eight international programmes that are eligible to supply carbon credits to international airlines to meet their carbon neutral growth. GCC, based in Qatar, is one of the two Corsia-eligible international GHG programmes that are headquartered in developing countries.
Dr Yousef Alhorr, president of GCC, pointed out that Global Carbon Council, originated from Mena region, aims to provide carbon market instrument to serve global stakeholders in meeting their commitment for the zero-carbon world.
"Sustainable development and do-no-harm to society and environment are the core principles of GCC in issuing Corsia-eligible carbon credits, with equal focus on avoidance of any overlap with national mitigation efforts to meet Paris agreement targets. Corsia’s approval demonstrates that within short time since its launch, GCC has been able to reach the mark of quality and environmental integrity expected from offsets to aid the efforts of carbon neutrality around the world.”
The GCC programme not only recognises the projects for their contribution to mitigate climate change through the issuance of carbon credits, but also provides labels for their contribution to sustainable development goals and no harm to society and environment.
The GCC programme has a complete regulatory framework in place and has already received submission of several GHG reduction projects from Turkey, India and Jamaica, which, if registered, will be collectively capable of reducing 28mn tonnes of CO2 in 10 years.
There are several projects considering submission from several other countries including Qatar, Oman, Serbia and Pakistan. Interest has been expressed by project developers from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Spain, China, Belgium, Canada and the US.
Several corporates and airlines are eying GCC projects to procure carbon credits to achieve their carbon neutrality goals. Carbon credits issued by GCC Programme will be used for carbon neutrality of FIFA 2022 World Cup. These credits will come from Qatari as well as international projects submitted to GCC, which expects to issue more than 10mn carbon credits in 2021.
The GCC has taken part in the implementation of World Bank’s Climate Warehouse and IHS Markit’s Meta Carbon Registry. The GCC is also on the advisory board of IHS Markit’s Meta Carbon Registry that is under development.
 
 
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