Of all the offset quality measures, additionality is likely the most important of them. After all, the entire concept of offsetting emissions (balancing out newly created emissions with newly reduced emissions) relies on the creation of new emission reductions. It is therefore critical that offsets are not being claimed for "business as usual" activities.

Only by buying “additional" offsets can you be assured that your purchase is ultimately benefiting the climate.

There are a number of tests applied to projects to determine if they meet additionality criteria:

• Legal and regulatory test: if the project is carried out simply to comply with legal or regulatory requirements, it cannot be considered additional. However, if the benefits of a project go beyond compliance, those “surplus” benefits may sometimes be considered additional.
• Financial test: if a project would not be economically feasible without the additional revenues generated from the sale of offsets, it may be considered additional. In other words, if a project is financially dependent upon offset-related revenues, it may be additional.
• Barriers test: if a project overcomes significant barriers (e.g. institutional barriers, lack of know-how, etc.) that would not face a business-as-usual alternative, it may be considered additional.
• Common practice test: if a project utilizes very common technologies, carbon offset benefits may not be critical to its viability. The project might not, therefore, be considered additional.

Return to: Quality Measures