CARBON CREDITS FOR SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA - lumes

documents where analyzed with an aim to identify key elements of the discourses. Iwill conclude by placing standard under one sustainability discourse or the other.SGS, KPMG and ICROA procedures are not covered by the current analysis,since the projects that used to employ these procedures are in the transition to one ofthe standards described below. Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) principles areapplied for 5 projects by Prima Klima, who doesn’t follow the Kyoto Carbonaccounting rules and applies its own catalogue of criteria to finance projects. FSC isnot a standard for certification of GHG emission reductions in the voluntary market;therefore it is not a subject of the analysis for the present study. VCS, VER+ andWBCSD/WRI CHG Protocol Initiative focus on GHG reduction only and do notrequire projects to have additional environmental or social benefits. Accordingly,neither sustainable development impact nor co-benefits are defined. Due to thisreason they were not included in the discourse analysis but are considered to becoming from WEMD, with a strong focus only on cost-efficiency in delivering GHGERs. Independent verification of GHG emission reduction in most of identified caseswas accomplished by a third party (an external auditing company like KPMG or SGS)or by a panel of experts invited and approved by a project developer as in case withTIST and TICOS. Sustainable development or sustainability benefits are not defined.However, community’s development is considered to be important for projectapproval. Nevertheless, experts do not verify the benefits, but only GHG reductions.It was not possible to identify elements constituting any sustainability discourse.Thus, this type of verification is not classified by this study.Figure 9. Projects Distribution by Standard.Source: devised by author based on own inventory.31