Projects need to be better built. A third challenge is the low quality of many carbon credits on offer. For example, many of the projects offered in the voluntary carbon market today do not meet the requirements proposed in the draft Core Carbon Principles by the ICVCM. While these principles are currently perhaps too ambitious, they set an important north star for high quality. However, there are major investments underway into the development of higher-quality projects and independent third- party reviews of quality. We must also start thinking about a project’s quality in much broader terms than simply the value and quality of its carbon impacts. We need to avoid “carbon tunnel vision”. Carbon removals and reductions do not happen in a vacuum, and we must aim for a holistic approach to quality when selecting which projects to support. A core criterion for Salesforce in assessing quality are the social and environmental co-benefits a project can generate beyond carbon sequestration. A holistic approach to carbon projects, especially for nature-based solutions, will make projects more durable and — in the long run — more profitable for local communities, land owners, and project developers. Projects that lack local, national, social, or political acceptance or ignore biodiversity considerations will be inherently unstable. A holistic approach to carbon projects Carbon reductions and removal Ecosystem health Ecosystems services Free, prior and informed consent Climate change adaptation and resilience Biodiversity benefits Community benefits We have learned invaluable lessons from successful projects. However, some of our most important lessons have come from our engagement with projects that don’t end up meeting our high standards for quality and co-benefits. For example, sometimes project developers are unable to credibly document how investment funds are being used and what portion is shared back with the local community. Other times, projects will use unrealistic calculations of their climate benefits (i.e., over estimating what deforestation rates might have been without their intervention). 9 | A JUST TRANSITION TO A NET ZERO, NATURE POSITIVE WORLD