The Standardized Crediting Framework (SCF) is an initiative by the Carbon Initiative for Development (Ci-Dev) to enhance carbon market support to energy access programs and to facilitate the transition of the project pipeline under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to the new regulatory framework of the Paris Agreement, as well as provide relevant inputs and lessons learned into the ongoing negotiations of Article 6 (Ci-Dev 2019; Spalding- Fecher et al. 2016). The SCF follows years of work by Ci-Dev and partners to reduce carbon market transaction costs and increase country ownership for energy access carbon market programs. The SCF therefore provides for a host country-led approach to crediting that simplifies scaling-up and replication of project activities within defined sectors of the economy – starting with energy access – as well as a potential transition to sectoral or sub-sectoral approaches to crediting emission reductions that go beyond the current CDM Programme of Activities (PoA) model.