In partnership with Gold Standard (GS), the international impact standards organization, RCC has developed a new international standard for the preparation and implementation of climate adaptation projects. This new adaptation projects standard is to guide local project owners to design, prepare, and implement quality climate adaptation projects in the context of still-evolving local climate change scenarios. By improving adaptation project viability, science and stakeholder informed quality, and investment worthiness, the Gold Standard/RCC standard can also improve the quality and scale of project pipelines for existing and emerging climate adaptation and resilience funds.
Unlike existing frameworks, the Gold Standard/RCC Standard assesses adaptation at the level of projects which has two key benefits. By defining a project design standard within the emerging national and local adaptation frameworks, the Standard aims to support both public authorities and the private sector in aligning the designs and management of projects with the defined goals and requirements in their climate action plans and resilience planning strategies.
As part of the Standard’s development process, RCC and Gold Standard convened a Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) over the course of 9 months representing 9 global organizations representing impact investing, private consulting, development banks, and global non-profits and think tanks. The TAP provided feedback on the draft requirements for the Standard, addressing critical feedback on the 28 requirements addressing critical project components such as team qualification and formation, stakeholder engagement, project technical design, hazard analysis and risk assessment, and adaptive management approaches.
The Standard’s 18 adaptation project preparation requirements provide a roadmap for project developers to design and implement projects taking current, projected, and as yet uncertain climate change risks into account. See the infographic below summarizing the structure of the requirements.
Standard’s 5 project Development Phases
The Standard’s 18 requirements and guidelines help project owners address both direct and systemic climate risks.
