Achieving High-Integrity Voluntary Climate Action

In recent years an unprecedented number of voluntary climate commitments have been made by a wide array of non-state and subnational actors. These voluntary climate actions aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build climate resilience and are crucial for lowering risks of exceeding warming limits. However, the full potential of voluntary climate action can only be realised when integrity-related concerns are overcome.ACHIEVE aims to identify opportunities to strengthen and scale up high-integrity voluntary climate action towards achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century. The project will generate transformative and timely scientific insights on the role, effectiveness and integrity of voluntary climate action including carbon credits; assess the integrity and impacts of such action; analyse how policies and regulations, and high-integrity voluntary climate action can strengthen each other; and use scientific findings to support the scaling up of high-integrity voluntary action. This will be achieved through a highly inter- and transdisciplinary consortium that, from the start, actively engages policymakers and other societal stakeholders in co-creating outcomes that respond to end users’ needs. ACHIEVE is aligned with the Work Programme of Cluster 5, Destination 1 “Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality” as the project directly contributes to advancing knowledge and providing solutions for climate change specifically on high integrity voluntary climate action. ACHIEVE will develop transition pathways to climate neutrality that integrate voluntary climate action by cities, regions and companies; it will develop novel social science insights for climate action; contribute to better understanding sustainability co-benefits and trade-offs; and increase transparency and trust in voluntary climate action by strengthening integrity and making scientific results easily accessible for different stakeholder groups.