Publications
The ACHIEVE project provides a comprehensive analysis of voluntary climate actions, focusing on three key areas: the integrity of Cooperative Climate Initiatives (CCIs), the influence of CCIs on subnational actors, and the role of climate initiatives in shaping a credible carbon market.
First, the report assesses the integrity of CCIs, which involve non-state and subnational actors in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. The study identifies significant disparities in transparency, accountability, and effectiveness among 267 initiatives. While initiatives with stricter reporting and membership standards show better outcomes, challenges such as the underrepresentation of actors from the Global South and Indigenous Peoples undermine credibility. The report emphasizes the need for greater accountability, inclusiveness, and sustainability to strengthen CCIs' contributions to global climate governance.
Second, the report explores how CCIs impact the climate commitments of subnational actors, particularly cities. Drawing on data from 1,180 cities and 61 CCIs, the analysis reveals that cities participating in multiple initiatives, especially those focused on standards, are more likely to set ambitious climate targets. In contrast, lobbying-centred initiatives have little to no impact on individual target-setting .
Third, the report examines which initiatives aim to address integrity in the voluntary carbon market, addressing both the supply-side (carbon credit quality) and the demand-side (credit use). Through the mapping of 43 integrity initiatives, it gives an overview of what elements are considered relevant for integrity of carbon credits and their use, and assesses which initiatives are likely to be impactful in the voluntary carbon market.
This report develops and applies the ACHIEVE integrity framework to guide and assess the integrity of voluntary climate action (VCA). The framework is built around four principles: integrated accountability, justice and equity, environmental protection, and low-carbon and resilient transformation, and was developed through a combination of literature review, stakeholder engagement, and iterative refinement within the ACHIEVE consortium. It offers a structured and flexible approach that can be adapted to different VCA contexts, helping bridge the gap between broad integrity concepts and practical assessment needs.
The framework is applied to five major assessment methodologies used by ACHIEVE partners: the Net Zero Tracker, the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, the Carbon Credit Integrity Assessment Framework, the Integrity of Climate Action in Cities Assessment Method, and the CoAct Framework for transnational cooperative initiatives. The analysis shows that all methodologies reflect principles of integrity, but with uneven coverage across principles. Integrated accountability is strongly embedded across all methodologies, particularly through target setting, transparency, reporting, and verification. Justice and equity are the least developed due to conceptual complexity and data limitations. Environmental protection appears only partially, often indirectly or context-dependently. Low-carbon and resilient transformation is present in methodologies that assess transition planning or sector-wide change, but less so in others.
The findings highlight common challenges, including limited data availability, varying capacities across actors, and the difficulty of operationalizing holistic integrity concepts in practice. The report concludes that the ACHIEVE integrity framework provides a useful foundation for strengthening, aligning, and scaling high-integrity VCA, and outlines next steps to refine, contextualize, and operationalize the framework across different VCA domains.
Non-state and subnational actors are increasingly significant in addressing the climate crisis. These actors were recognised in the Paris Agreement and are called upon to support actions to reduce emissions. This study aims to provide new approaches to enhance the assessment of non-state actors' collective progress and ambition towards the Paris Agreement goals, as well as to support benchmarking cities, subnational regions, and companies against Paris-aligned pathways. This study gives a global perspective by using integrated assessment models and give a consistent picture at this level considering various scenarios. However, to facilitate the benchmarking of climate actions by diverse actors and help policymakers understand their potential contributions to mitigation, new methodologies for these models are needed. Therefore, the assessments done with these models should include a broader range of actors to give a detailed understanding of the global impact of various levels of non-state and subnational climate action. To achieve this, the actors’ commitments could be aggregated for model inputs, model outputs could be downscaled to specific actor groups and geographic locations, and the actors’ decisions could be incorporated into the model’s decision-making process. Two case studies were conducted to demonstrate the new approaches. The first case study focuses on companies and shows that scaled-up emissions reduction targets in key sectors are projected to decrease global emissions 25% by 2030 compared to the levels projected under current national policies alone. The second case study focuses on cities and shows that downscaled urban emissions from a current policy scenario need to be reduced by 50% to close the gap with a downscaled urban 1.5° C-aligned pathway.
This ACHIEVE project deliverable provides a comprehensive analysis of the environmental integrity of carbon credits and their use, structured in three parts: a mixed-methods analysis of the use of carbon credits in companies, cities and Corporate Climate Initiative (CCIs); the description of the methodology underlying the Carbon Credit Environmental Integrity (CENVI) Model; and an in-depth analysis of the emission quantification methodology VM00048.
First, the report presents insights from three studies on the role of carbon credits in non-state climate action, assessing the role of cities, companies and CCIs. The studies identify key predictors of carbon credit use of these actor groups and assess how these actors integrate carbon credits into their climate strategies, climate action plans and guidance documents. The analysis shows that carbon credit use is often part of climate strategies with some high integrity aspects, but persistent issues remain, including the use of low-quality carbon credits and carbon credit use for offsetting claims instead of contribution claims.
Second, the report provides a description of the CENVI model will combine data on issued (or planned to be issued) carbon credits with an assessment of the integrity of these carbon credits, enabling the evaluation of different carbon credit portfolios.
Third, the report presents a detailed assessment of the new landmark methodology of the Verified Carbon Standard for avoided deforestation (methodology VM0048). The methodology is particularly critical for the integrity of the future voluntary carbon market, as it is supposed to replace earlier VCS methodologies that raise major integrity concerns. The assessment found that the new methodology is an improvement to the previous methodologies but could still lead to considerable overestimation of emission reductions.
This report presents the findings on the role and integrity of voluntary climate initiatives (VCIs) in advancing climate action among non-state actors within the ACHIEVE project Work Package 2. It provides an overview of eight studies that investigate both initiative-level governance and actor-level outcomes, including corporate targets, financial sector practices, and city-level policy changes. The report analyses how these studies addressed three main objectives: 1) Assessing the integrity standards and enforcement practices of VCIs; 2) Analysing integrity trends across different non-state actor groups; and 3) Comparing the performance of VCI members with non-members. Findings reveal significant heterogeneity in integrity standards, with harmonised definition and consistent methodology for assessing climate commitments only starting to emerge. Across different sectors, ambition and integrity gaps remain widespread: many actors lack robust targets, and even where targets exist, they often fall short in scope, transparency, or implementation. Sector-specific analyses, such as in the agrifood sector, show improvements in reporting but limited progress in emissions reductions and strategy specificity. Several studies find that VCI membership can be associated with higher ambition and improved governance practices, including better reporting and accountability structures. However, these improvements are uneven and often insufficient to ensure meaningful emissions reductions, or other social and environmental impacts. The voluntary nature of VCIs, combined with weak enforcement mechanisms, limits their effectiveness. Overall, the report concludes that while VCIs can support coordination and raise ambition, they are structurally inadequate on their own. Stronger regulatory frameworks and accountability mechanisms are necessary to ensure credible, high-integrity climate action aligned with global climate goals.
Contributors: Saskia Straub (NCI); Silke Mooldijk (NCI); Birka Wicke (RU); Sander Chan (RU); Lauri Peterson (UEF); Kiri van den Wall Bake (RU); Sebastian Reyes de la Lanza (RU); Mark Roelfsema (PBL).
Traditional greenhouse gas inventory tools remain the most practical option for cities. While these tools differ in data sources, scope, and flexibility, improving transparency and integrating new data sources such as satellite observations, artificial intelligence, and machine learning could enhance their accuracy and comparability. Effective national systems combine centralised coordination with flexibility for local data, reducing administrative burdens while maintaining local relevance.
Emerging emissions tracking platforms, particularly Carbon Monitor Cities, offer more frequent and detailed monitoring than annual inventories. More advanced systems such as EverImpact and ICOS Cities potentially provide highly accurate observations but currently require substantial investment, specialised equipment, and technical expertise. Citizen science complements these approaches by increasing public engagement, supporting behaviour change, and generating locally relevant data.
For most cities, especially those with limited budgets, it is recommended to rely on conventional GHG inventories while joining city networks that provide guidance, training, and access to suitable planning and monitoring tools. More sophisticated monitoring approaches are better suited to larger, well-resourced cities with greater capacity to influence local emissions.
Looking ahead, advances in AI and high-resolution satellite data could significantly improve emissions monitoring and help better link local inventories with national and global climate targets. However, many innovative approaches remain at the pilot stage or are accessible only to a limited number of cities. Given the rapid pace of technological development, city networks are expected to play an increasingly important role in evaluating new tools, sharing knowledge, and supporting cities in implementing effective climate planning.
This report presents a first synthesis of research examining voluntary climate action (VCA) governance across international, EU, and national levels, drawing on a framework mapping
exercise, two national case studies, a carbon market governance analysis, and an expert survey.
First, this mapping reveals a dense but fragmented governance landscape. At the international level, the Paris Agreement, ICVCM, VCMI, ISSB disclosure standards, and SBTi define an increasingly layered architecture for credible voluntary commitment. At the EU level, seven binding instruments including the CSRD, CSDDD, Taxonomy Regulation, and CRCF have significantly raised integrity requirements for corporate climate action. Cross-level coordination remains incomplete, most acutely in the governance of carbon credits.
Second, the carbon market governance faces structural gaps in accountability for environmental and social outcomes, unresolved tensions between voluntary certification and compliance frameworks, and underdeveloped procedural safeguards in the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body.
Third, the case studies of Fossilfritt Sverige in Sweden and the Nationaal Klimaat Platform in the Netherlands demonstrate that state-initiated intermediaries can effectively convene actors, generate sectoral roadmaps, and translate national climate targets into voluntary action. Effectiveness depends on operational autonomy, long-term mandates, and stable national regulatory conditions, none of which are consistently present.
Fourth, the expert survey finds that high-integrity design increases rather than deters participation; that national regulatory instability is the primary constraint on voluntary ambition; and that EU governance provides more enabling conditions than national frameworks. Equity, inclusion, and adaptation remain under-addressed across initiatives.
The overarching finding is that voluntary initiatives perform best as part of a hybrid governance model anchored in stable and ambitious regulation.
This is a brief checklist for webinar development and sharing. Besides the comprehensive checklist, it also includes information on the first webinar that will be held in July 3, 2024.
The report describes the development of the first version of the ACHIEVE Stakeholder Platform. The aim of the platform is to support and engage an active community of stakeholders, ensure their needs are included in the design of the ACHIEVE research, disseminate insights, and enable upscaling of project results. The report starts with an introduction on these aims and the role of the platform in the project and continues with a description of the conceptualisation and design process that took place since the beginning of the project. The report then provides a concise technical description of the platform along with screenshots of its current implementation. The report concludes with a summary of platform features that have been currently developed and provides a perspective on next steps, especially in terms of content creation and engagement with stakeholders.
This is the CDE strategy of ACHIEVE’s information and results of the project to relevant audiences and stakeholders. The strategy defines the scope of communication, dissemination, and exploitation in the context of ACHIEVE and sets the CDE targets of the project as well as quantifiable indicators for specific activities that will be monitored throughout the project’s duration. Next, the report identifies the target audiences of the project and users of the knowledge generated, ranging from individual citizens and environmental, climate, and civil society NGOs to policymakers, scientists, and private sector entities. In order to reach and engage with these different groups, a diverse selection of promotional channels is suggested. These promotional channels include, among others, the project’s website, social media (e.g., X and LinkedIn), a stakeholder engagement platform, synergies with other relevant projects, and 12 capacity building webinars, starting on July 2024. A visual identity and a logo for the project have been developed and used in the design of the project website while other promotional materials that will be developed include articles, infographics, videos, and presentations.
This is the first update of ACHIEVE’s strategy for the communication, dissemination, and exploitation (CDE) of project results. The strategy defines the scope of CDE in the context of ACHIEVE and sets targets and quantifiable indicators for specific activities that will be monitored throughout the project’s duration. Next, the report identifies the target audiences of the project and users of the knowledge generated, ranging from individual citizens and environmental, climate, and civil society NGOs to policymakers, scientists, and private sector entities. In order to reach and engage with these different groups, a diverse selection of promotional channels is suggested. These promotional channels include, among others, the project’s website, social media (e.g., LinkedIn), a stakeholder platform, synergies with other relevant projects, and 12 capacity building webinars. A visual identity and a logo for the project have been developed and used in the design of the project website while other promotional materials include articles, infographics, videos, and presentations. Finally, the report provides recommendations for next steps based on the progress on CDE indicators during the first 18 months of the project.
The Data Management Plan (DMP) adheres to Horizon Europe guidelines and outlines how data will be collected, managed, and shared. It emphasises data integrity and reuse, with a commitment to making data as open as possible while protecting sensitive information. Data will be stored in secure repositories like Zenodo and Radboud University’s servers, with public access facilitated through various platforms. Key types of data include quantitative and qualitative information on voluntary climate actions collected through surveys, interviews, and existing databases. The project ensures data interoperability and adherence to GDPR, focusing on transparency and reusability. Ethical guidelines and secure data management practices are maintained by all partners, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and standards. This living document is created with inputs from all project partners and is expected to be modified as necessary.
Milestone 3 outlines the data requirements from WP2 for integrated assessment modelling in WP4. The primary aim of the modelling is to assess the impact of voluntary climate initiatives on greenhouse gas emissions, energy- and land use, and illustrating possible transition pathways for groups of different actors such as cities, regions, and companies.
One of ACHIEVE’s main missions is the active engagement of policymakers and societal stakeholders in a co-creative process. By involving stakeholders from the beginning, we ensure that the project’s outcomes are not only scientifically robust but also responsive to the real-world needs of those who will implement and benefit from them. The Stakeholder Engagement Guidelines are designed to facilitate this co-creation process, offering a consistent and structured approach for involving diverse voices across all stages of the project. By providing multiple avenues for engagement—through surveys, interviews, workshops, and digital platforms—these guidelines aim to foster transparency, collaboration, and trust. The integration of stakeholder input will be vital to enhancing the integrity and effectiveness of voluntary climate action. Through these guidelines, ACHIEVE ensures that its scientific insights are grounded in practical, stakeholder-driven solutions that accelerate the transition to climate neutrality.
The ACHIEVE project – ACHIEVE stands for Achieving High-Integrity Voluntary Climate Action - is a European Union-funded initiative focused on advancing the integrity, effectiveness, and scalability of voluntary climate action (VCA) by non-state and subnational actors. With the urgency of climate mitigation and the growing number of local and voluntary commitments, ACHIEVE seeks to build the scientific and governance foundations necessary to scale VCA with credibility. The project involves a highly interdisciplinary consortium and engages a range of stakeholders—from policymakers to civil society groups—in the co-design of tools, methods, and recommendations for impactful climate action. It particularly emphasizes transparent monitoring, high-integrity carbon credits, climate financing, and inclusive, citizen-driven action. One of the priorities of the project is to analyse the role of municipalities as voluntary actors in climate action.
The webinar, titled “Cities and Citizens: Partnering for Climate Action,” was hosted on June 27, 2025, as part of ACHIEVE Work Package 3.2. It provided a platform for city practitioners and civic initiatives from across Europe to share best practices, strategies, and barriers related to citizen engagement in local climate action. The event was structured in two main blocks: (1) the role of municipalities in fostering citizen involvement, and (2) citizen-led social innovations that enable collaborative governance. Speakers represented both municipal administrations and grassroots initiatives, offering a well-rounded view of top-down and bottom-up engagement models. A final Q&A session enabled further reflection and mutual learning.