Standards Development

Scope

This BSI Flex specifies requirements for driving a consistent level of quality across projects delivering nature-based carbon removals and greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions taking place within the UK’s territories and ascribed to UK production-based accounts. It is intended to provide a credible means of identifying projects that are capable of yielding high-integrity carbon^[3]) units that represent additional, real and verified outcomes, based on the latest science and best practice.

This BSI Flex is intended to:

•           apply the principles set out in BSI Flex 701 to nature-based carbon projects;

•           drive the increased supply of projects delivering high-integrity nature-based carbon removals and GHG reductions;

•           provide a level of consistency for these projects across all habitats and land use types;

•           provide set criteria for any programme that is intended to generate credits that can be used to support voluntary carbon mitigation claims; and

•           align with international best practice, building on the emerging consensus from the Integrity Council for Voluntary Carbon Markets’ (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles.

This BSI Flex covers the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of domestic (i.e. UK-derived, excluding overseas dependent territories) carbon removals and GHG reductions (i.e. robust measurement of the baseline and projections for the benefits of proposed interventions), in a manner that is consistent across different types of natural capital.

This BSI Flex does not cover:

•           uses of and claims made about purchased credits;

•           activities of corporate buyers or their reporting requirements;

•           engineered GHG removals utilizing natural systems or materials, such as biochar, enhanced rock weathering etc; and

•           avoidance of future emissions, including Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects that seek to avoid future deforestation.

This BSI Flex is intended for use by carbon market participants, including:

•           suppliers of nature-based projects (or credits);

•           nature-based carbon crediting programmes, including codes, standards and schemes that facilitate the generation of carbon credits; and

•           registries, trading platforms and other market intermediaries.

This BSI Flex might also be of interest to:

•           consultants;

•           non-governmental organizations (NGOs);

•           buyers of nature-based credits;

•           investors in nature-based projects;

•           nature market verification and validation bodies;

•           regulators;

•           policy analysts; and

•           researchers.

This BSI Flex is intended for use in the UK.

NOTE This BSI Flex might inform nature market activity in other parts of the world but does not explicitly take into account non-UK environmental, governance and other contexts. It could also inform the generation of nature units from suppliers in the UK that are traded in non-UK markets.