Today, the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform, an initiative formed to provide companies with guidance, clarity, and confidence to enable impactful investments in decarbonized technologies, announced the launch of the AIM Platform Intervention Quality, Accounting & Reporting (QAR) Standard and Guidance Pilot Program and Public Comment Period. The draft QAR Standard and Guidance, which will be piloted by a group of 20+ global companies, seeks to provide companies with reliable guidance on how to accurately assess quality, and account and report for qualifying value chain interventions. For many companies considering where and how to invest in value chain, or Scope 3, decarbonization, clear and assurable requirements like those in the QAR Standard and Guidance can help overcome barriers that have traditionally delayed widespread deployment and uptake of lower-emitting alternative materials, energy, projects, and services.
Pilot program participants from a range of sectors have volunteered to apply the AIM Platform QAR Standard and Guidance to real-world interventions linked to their value chains. Among the companies that intend to participate in the pilot test are Amazon, Anthesis Group, ClimeCo, H&M Group, Heidelberg Materials, Indigo Ag, Meta, Netflix, NORDEN, PepsiCo, REI Co-op, Shell Chemicals, and others representing a range of industries and sectors.
The draft QAR Standard and Guidance is the second core output of the AIM Platform, and builds on Criteria 2-11 from the draft AIM Platform Criteria. Its release follows the draft AIM Platform Association Test that underwent a pilot and public consultation period earlier in 2025. The QAR Standard and Guidance pilot program will run through November 5, 2025, and the public consultation will conclude November 21. Organizations interested in contributing to the QAR Standard and Guidance feedback process can learn more on the AIM Platform website or by emailing info@aimplatform.org. Findings from the pilot and public comment period will be incorporated through revisions and culminate in the publication of Version 1 of the AIM Platform Standard and Guidance planned for release in early 2026.
The AIM Platform seeks to effect positive change by overcoming key obstacles for companies supporting decarbonization efforts within their value chain. Company Scope 3 targets represent a significant opportunity to mobilize finance for lower and zero emission fuels and technologies. But in order to unlock investment at the scale and speed required, companies will benefit from updated methods to identify, account for, and claim value chain interventions. The AIM Platform QAR Standard and Guidance and Association Test were specifically developed to provide credible and practical guidance, reduce uncertainty, and remove critical roadblocks to driving and scaling corporate decarbonization.
Email info@aimplatform.org or visit aimplatform.org to learn more and plan to join the AIM Platform’s upcoming webinar scheduled for October 16 from 10-11AM ET – register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qHq8zLtZSMeEiDEe1qstVg#/registration
Please note that participation in the pilot test does not amount to any individual company’s endorsement or commitment to use the AIM Platform QAR Standard and Guidance or completed Standard and Guidance in future.
About the AIM Platform
The Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform is a cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder initiative jointly established in early 2023 by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), the Center for Green Market Activation, and Gold Standard. The AIM Platform seeks to unlock vast new sums of private climate finance by bringing together civil society and the private sector to remove roadblocks to value chain mitigation and ignite sectoral transition. Our vision is a world where businesses can easily account for and claim value chain emissions interventions, driving collective climate action, scaling advanced, low-carbon technologies, and enabling the transition to a sustainable economy in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
For more information, visit aimplatform.org or email info@aimplatform.org.