To mark the launch of our Pilot Implementation and Partnership Phase, the Higher Ground Foundation is very proud to present a draft of its Vulnerability Reduction Credits (VRCs™) Standard Framework, along with its VRC Project and Methodology documents, for public consultation and comment. The Framework represents the output of a number of years of input and work, culminating in 2017 with an Experts’ Review, resulting in this publicly available version.

The VRC Standard Framework provides a global, unified standard for quantifying the outputs of projects that reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change, through a sustained delivery of adaptation measures. Projects must meet rigorous voluntary validation, registration, monitoring and verification standards and, in doing so, achieve certification as VRCs.

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The Framework provides the requirements for developing projects and methodologies, including clear baseline regimes, as well as the requirements for validation and monitoring, of projects and verification of the project outputs.  And while VRCs are a quantified, fungible instrument, very clear, qualitative and quantitative thresholds must be met to ensure that harm, and certainly catastrophic harm, is avoided.  Community consultation is another important requirement, including special requirements for projects in indigenous communities. The Standard Framework is supported by other documents—the VRC Project Document and Methodology Templates—that give requirements specific to interventions in areas such as human health, infrastructure, water supply, and agriculture, and will also be supported by documents outlining integration of VRCs with other ecosystem metrics, standards, and programs.

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The Standard Framework is downloadable at the below button, and this version shall be the basis, until further notice, for methodology and project document approvals and registration under the HGF’s Pilot Implementation and Partnerships Phase (PIPP).