Join the corporate climate leaders working to protect tropical forests

LEAF Corporate Participants

LEAF corporate participants are a community of climate leaders committed to ending deforestation by building a market for high integrity forest carbon credits.

Working with sovereign donors, forest governments and civil society, LEAF corporations support Indigenous Peoples, protect biodiversity and help forest nations work at scale to achieve their sustainable development goals.

LEAF is designed to give companies access to high integrity, predictably priced forest carbon credits from countries dedicated to ending deforestation. Payments reward forest governments for reducing deforestation, incentivize them to increase ambition and provide an income stream to invest in sustainable economies based on living forests.

Over 25 major companies are committed to tackling deforestation

The LEAF Proposition

LEAF enables high-ambition corporations to reach their climate, nature and people goals on their journey to net zero. Corporations gain access to the highest quality forest carbon credits from Forest Governments via the LEAF Coalition to help deliver:

High Integrity Credits for Climate Leaders

Integrity is at the heart of the LEAF proposition. - LEAF only buys credits that meet ART’s TREES, a standard that guarantees the highest levels of environmental integrity and social safeguards. - Strict fund management and reporting rules ensure that all proceeds from LEAF are re-invested in programs which support sustainable economic development. - LEAF ensures buyer integrity too, with strict buyers’ criteria ensuring only companies committed to deep value chain emissions reductions and transparent reporting can take part.

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Reliable Supply from countries taking action to protect their forests

Supply risk is managed by working at scale with a wide pool of sellers. - LEAF only works with national or subnational governments with a forest area of over 2.5 million hectares, guaranteed high supply volumes. - LEAF’s large pool of forest governments +20 and counting ensures supply from a wide portfolio of sellers.

The participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities

LEAF recognizes the crucial role played by Indigenous Peoples in forest protection and is designed to protect their rights and ensure their full participation. - LEAF only buys forest carbon credits issued by the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) that meet the requirements of The REDD+ Environmental Excellence Standard (TREES). This standard was specifically chosen due to its strong focus on socials safeguards, in line with the Cancún Safeguards, the only internationally recognized set of safeguards developed with sustained IP&LC consultation. - LEAF requires that forest governments submitting proposal to supply credits to LEAF must ensure Indigenous Peoples are kept informed in a culturally appropriate manner. - A proactive stakeholder engagement strategy aims to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are fully informed about the LEAF process and know how to participate in consultations with governments.

Efficient, Low-Cost Transactions

Transactions are efficient and low cost with LEAF. - A single contract with Emergent enables corporations to buy from multiple forest governments. - Emergent, LEAF’s non-profit coordinator, charges a low-cost fee with an annual cap. - No upfront payment.

Predictable Pricing

LEAF is designed to manage price risk in a volatile market. - Forward purchase agreements at an agreed price. - A fixed price secured by volume commitment from large pool of buyers.

Impact Focus

LEAF provides a real opportunity to demonstrate impact and ambition. - Participation in an ambitious coalition of climate leaders focused on ending deforestation - Clear and measurable results and outcomes. - Genuine storytelling opportunities – impacts on people and nature on the ground in forest countries.

Fund Management and Reporting

For more information on how proceeds from LEAF credit sales are responsibly managed, read Emergent’s comprehensive principles for fund management and reporting below:

Read the Principles

LEAF Buyers' Criteria

LEAF’s stringent buyers’ criteria ensure that all action is additional to deep value chain emissions cuts. To participate in The LEAF Coalition private sector buyers must:

Publicly commit to quantified and independently verified science-based decarbonization targets (validated by SBTi or an equivalent target-setting body/approach). Private sector buyers should have set SBTi or equivalent targets (as above) before taking title to ERRs.

Publicly commit to mid-century net zero targets covering all three scopes.

Publicly report a greenhouse gas emissions inventory following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP).

Separately report publicly any use of ERRs or other carbon credits, including purpose of use and whether they are being used towards any science-based decarbonization target. The buyer's use of ERRs in the context of their greenhouse gas reporting, or public claims involving the use of ERRs against emissions, should be independently audited or verified.

Read the full Buyers' Criteria

David Radermacher, Vice President Sustainability and Climate, E.ON

‘E.ON strongly supports the approach of jurisdictional emission reduction programmes. We believe that especially government-led, large-scale initiatives can initiate long-term political change towards forest protection.’

What are LEAF Corporates saying?

Kara Hurst, Head of World Sustainability, Amazon

‘LEAF provides an ambitious, high-integrity model for how companies can drive actual verified reduction in deforestation emissions at an unprecedented scale.’

Thomas Lingard, Global Sustainability Director – Climate and Environment, Unilever

‘Protecting tropical forests offers one of the biggest opportunities for climate action in the coming decade. The motivation behind LEAF, which Unilever is aligned to, is to raise global climate ambition and contribute to tropical forest protection.’

Adele Cheli, Partnerships & Strategy Director, Environmental Sustainability, GSK

‘We believe the LEAF Coalition offers an effective and credible mechanism to have real and systemic impact on climate, nature and health.’

Get in Touch

To find out more about how your company can participate in the LEAF Coalition, please fill in the form to contact:

Edwina McKechnie

Executive Vice President of Corporate Engagement Emergent

News and Updates

Ecuador signs deal for $30m in climate finance from LEAF Coalition

Pará signs $180m LEAF Coalition deal – first in Brazil

Costa Rica and Ghana agree landmark deals to supply forest carbon credits to LEAF Coalition buyers

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Acre leads the way in Brazil with the first LEAF Coalition term sheet

Resources

Access our full list of LEAF documents and resources below:

Access Resources