Arlington VA—Environmental Resources Trust (ERT) at Winrock International announces a 60-day global public comment period to solicit input on the draft Standard for the Transformation of the Electric Power Sector (STEPS).
STEPS is a first-of-a-kind jurisdictional scale, sector-wide carbon crediting standard that details a rigorous process to transparently quantify, verify, and issue high-integrity greenhouse gas emission reduction credits for Participants that achieve earlier and deeper electric power sector emission reductions contributing to Paris Agreement climate targets.
STEPS is unique in that instead of project-based carbon accounting for specific activities, the Standard requires accounting for all electricity generation and associated CO₂ emissions within the jurisdiction, including grid-connected facilities, captive generation plants, distributed generation and imports and exports, as applicable. Sector-wide accounting mitigates the risk of emissions leakage and enables the implementation of a wide range of interventions to lower emissions across the sector, including the deployment of grid connected and distributed renewable energy, retirement or reduced dispatch from fossil fuel plants, and build out of grid infrastructure and energy storage.
“After years in development, we are very excited to publish this innovative approach to attract carbon market finance at scale to support the energy transition in emerging and developing economies,” said Mary Grady, CEO of Environmental Resources Trust. “STEPS incentivizes the implementation of a broad range of policy and regulatory changes to support sector decarbonization. By focusing on performance at the sector level, STEPS encourages comprehensive, long-term structural transformation of the electric power sector while ensuring energy security, energy equity and a just energy transition. The goal is to certify high-quality results while allowing flexibility for implementation of energy transition plans as nationally appropriate,” she added.
Visit STEPSclimate.org to review the draft Standard and register for future webinars about STEPS.
Stakeholders are encouraged to submit comments via email (STEPS@winrock.org) with the email title “STEPS public comments” by July 1, 2026.