Registry
Gold Standard
Also known as: Gold Standard for the Global Goals, GS4GG
TL;DR
Verra's main competitor in the voluntary carbon market — a Swiss-based standard with stricter sustainable-development co-benefit requirements than VCS.
Full explainer
Gold Standard — formally Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG) since the 2017 expansion — is the second-largest voluntary-market crediting programme by issued volume, founded by WWF and a coalition of NGOs in 2003. Gold Standard issues Verified Emission Reductions (VERs), one per tonne of CO₂e reduced or removed, and is widely seen as the highest-bar voluntary standard for sustainable-development co-benefits and additionality rigor.
A modest number of Indonesian projects register under Gold Standard, particularly clean-cookstove, micro-hydro electricity, and small-scale forestry projects. Gold Standard methodologies overlap with CDM (it accepts CDM methodologies plus its own GS-specific methodologies). KarbonLens cross-references Gold Standard projects in /projects/by-registry/gold-standard.
Authoritative source
Gold Standard — official site →Related terms