While policymakers focus on ensuring effective emissions reductions, there is a clear public, political and economic interest in setting standards to ensure that broader social and environmental risks are appropriately addressed.

CARE is at the forefront of efforts to determine the criteria these standards should include, how they might be implemented in a way that is acceptable to national governments and affected communities, and how effective compliance monitoring within a national accounting framework might be ensured. CARE is focused on two areas: establishing standards for project designs and developing international programming standards for REDD.

The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards (CCB Standards): CARE's Poverty, Environment and Climate Change Network (PECCN) Secretariat contributed substantially to the second version of the CCB Standards for land-based projects and programmes through a global alliance. The Standards help define how carbon markets can be used as a means to further multiple global goals, including poverty reduction. For example, REDD initiatives can strengthen indigenous land claims and rights, and a landscape approach combining agroforestry may be especially beneficial and sustainable. The CCB standards will help CARE members ensure high-quality implementation across the organization as it scales up its multiple-benefit, land-based initiatives. (See: www.climate-standards.org).

The REDD+ Social and Environmental Standards Initiative: PECCN and the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) are currently facilitating the development of quality standards for national/sub-national REDD and other forest carbon programs and policies. The goal is to have effective social and environmental standards for REDD and other forest carbon initiatives make a substantial contribution to human rights, poverty reduction and biodiversity conservation goals whilst avoiding social or environmental harm. Using a very broad consultative process the first phase of this Initiative has developed a version of these standards that will be ready for use by pilot countries in July 2010. A second phase will then apply the standards in at least five countries and support voluntary adoption of the standards by policy/market innovators. (See: www.redd-standards.org)