Our micro-scale projects based on the Gold Standard

The Klima-Kollekte projects are assigned to the categories of renewable energies and energy efficiency. They are implemented by local partner organizations and developed together with the local population in countries of the global south.

They reduce local poverty by empowering women, protecting health and providing prospects for the future - and they also reduce CO₂ emissions and thus protect the climate. They also contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The projects are certified with the Gold Standard for the Global Goals and in some cases also with the Fairtrade Climate Standard. Micro-projects with an annual CO₂ reduction of less than 5,000 t CO2 can be developed in line with the Gold Standard for the Global Goals and comply with its strict criteria. We also have these projects randomly audited by external experts.

The Gold Standard Foundation a non-profit certification organization registered in Switzerland. The Gold Standard for the Global Goals (formerly Gold Standard) is a seal of approval for Klima-Kollekte projects in countries of the Global South. It was developed in 2003 by WWF and other environmental organizations and aims to ensure that projects not only benefit the climate, but also the people. Therefore, only projects that demonstrably lead to a reduction of greenhouse gases and at the same time are good for the local environment and social concerns of the population are certified. More information is available here: https://www.goldstandard.org/.

Reforestation does not guarantee that CO2 will be saved permanently (permanence). Trees can be cut down, attacked by pests or burn down unplanned. As a result, the carbon stored in the trees escapes back into the air as CO₂ emissions, releasing the emissions that were originally emitted. In various cases, moreover, land rights are not always clarified in reforestation projects, so land grabbing can occur. Furthermore, the rights of the local population are not always sufficiently respected. When smallholders are resettled in forest protection projects, in parts of the forest outside the project boundaries, the problem of deforestation is only shifted.ur verlagert.

The countries in the global north are responsible for climate change. However, it is still the people in the countries of the south who feel climate change and its consequences much more drastically than we do in the global north. Moreover, these people have little or no opportunity to change anything about it and are thus doubly at the mercy of climate change. Therefore, it is a question of justice if those who cause climate change contribute through Klima-Kollekte in order to expand renewable energies in developing countries or to improve local livelihoods.
Due to the connection to the churches, Klima-Kollekte uses partnership relations with the partner organizations in the global south and can thus enable projects on an equal footing and in partnership. This improves the living conditions of the affected people in the long term, especially where no state mechanisms for the supply of energy, health or education are effective.