Gold Standard has approved a political risk insurance policy from specialist underwriter Blenheim Partnerships Limited for use by carbon project developers supplying credits under the aviation industry’s mandatory offset scheme, marking the first time a traditional political risk insurer has entered the CORSIA market.
The approval adds Blenheim’s Sovereign Corresponding Adjustment Revocation & Enforced Withdrawal policy, known as SCREW, to Gold Standard’s list of instruments eligible to support carbon credits under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
The policy was assessed by Howden, appointed by Gold Standard in 2025 to independently review insurance products against its published criteria.
Blenheim joins four previously approved providers: the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), Artio MGA Services, CFC Underwriting, and Oka, The Carbon Insurance Company.
The newly added insurance mechanism addresses one of CORSIA’s fundamental structural challenges, namely host-country authorizations.
Under the Paris Agreement, countries account for emissions reductions from carbon projects against their own national climate targets by default.
For project developers to sell credits into the CORSIA system—where airlines use them to offset international emissions growth—host governments must formally authorize the transfer, confirming they will not simultaneously claim the reductions themselves.
That authorization process has moved slowly, leaving the pool of fully eligible credits far below projected airline demand.
Relevant: First Major CORSIA Credit Retirement Signals Market Shift, Gold Standard Says
Insurance policies approved by Gold Standard provide project developers with an alternative route to eligibility, offering a guarantee against the risk of a host government withdrawing or revoking its authorization after credits have been issued.
“As demand grows under CORSIA in the coming years, the supply of high-quality eligible credits will also need to scale up,” said Sarah Leugers, Gold Standard’s chief growth officer.
Expanding the pool of approved insurers is one of the ways the organization is helping developers reach the market from secure foundations, she added.
Since approvals of private insurance began in October 2025, three project developers have used the mechanism to secure credit labelling for CORSIA’s first phase, through projects in Rwanda and Tanzania.
Read more: Billions In CORSIA Compliance Spending Held Up By Missing Govt Approvals, Sylvera Warns
