About the NCS Alliance

About the NCS Alliance

The NCS Alliance members share a vision where NCSs play a key role in addressing climate change; they work together towards a common goal and stand behind a common set of principles.

Our vision

Enable Natural Climate Solutions to contribute their full potential towards the Paris climate goals as well as help solve some of the world’s most pressing and intractable environmental and social challenges, including biodiversity and forest loss, land degradation, sustainable water management and sustainable community livelihoods, starting today.

Our goal

Build an effective and scalable carbon market that enables natural carbon sinks while safeguarding nature.

Our objectives

1. Support demand-side integrity: Guide the use of NCS credits as an integral element to a high-ambition corporate climate strategy, additional to the company’s decarbonization efforts.
2. Support the investment in high-quality NCS credits: Provide clarity to companies on what makes a high-quality NCS project/program, and consequently high-quality credits.
3. Support mainstreaming: Raise awareness and educate key stakeholders on the proper use of NCS in corporate climate strategies. 

Our guiding principles

For NCS carbon credits from any sector to be a credible and sustainable option for reducing and sequestering emissions, concerns and real challenges must be addressed. All actors will need to adopt a set of principles and practices that can deliver environmental and social integrity, in order to build on a track-record of successful delivery. Our proposed principles are as follows:

1. NCS should be used in conjunction with the GHG emissions mitigation hierarchy i.e. avoiding and reducing emissions should be prioritized and continue in addition to the use of NCS credits.
2. NCS credits can provide an interim solution for hard to abate emissions but not a permanent one.  For certain unavoidable emissions, carbon sinks – potentially including natural sinks – will always be needed to achieve net-zero. NCS credits should be considered an enabling solution that will support long-term sustainable land use.
3. NCS investments should follow rigorous environmental and social safeguards, which may help generate other benefits in line with UN SDGs.
4. Sound and verified carbon measurement and accounting methodologies must be applied to ensure high integrity of NCS credits.

The NCSA structure

The NCSA includes the following 5 governing bodies:

1. The members
2. The Steering Committee
3. The Technical Advisory Group
4. The Taskforces
5. The Secretariat