a proposal for the creation of a new unit under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, the Early Finance Carbon Unit (EFCU), to facilitate early flows of funding to carbon offset projects.
One EFCU would represent one ton of carbon expected to be produced by the project; it would be assigned at project registration and enable projects to transact units prior to verification and issuance of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). EFCUs are not ex-ante credits; they reflect the emission reductions or removals that a given project is expected to generate in the future. These new units would provide added confidence that early contracts and the terms agreed therein are honored. This, in turn, should support and motivate front-loaded investment, enabling projects to raise finance significantly earlier than is currently possible.