Gold Standard (carbon offset standard)

It was designed with an intent to ensure that carbon credits are real, verifiable, and that projects make measurable contributions to sustainable development.

The objective of the GS is to add branding, with a quality label, to carbon credits[1] generated by projects which can then be bought and traded by countries that have a binding legal commitment according to the Kyoto Protocol, businesses, or other organizations for carbon offsetting purposes.

The Gold Standard for CDM (GS-CER) was developed in 2003 by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), South-North, and Helio International.

In July 2008, the Gold Standard Version 2.0 was released, including sets of guidelines and manuals on the GS requirements, toolkits, and other supporting documents to be used by project developers and DOEs.

[10] Project Developers, Designated Operational Entities (DOEs) (also known as Validators), Traders and Buyers of credits can open accounts with the registry.