CarbonTracker.com - Carbon offset quality measures

All offsets are not created equal! Because the voluntary offset market remains largely unregulated, providers of offsets can employ a wide range of techniques to generate, calculate and market their offset products. Some of those techniques are subject to rigorous quality review; other techniques may be untested or unreliable.

Consumers and businesses seeking to balance their carbon emissions should strive to select a reliable offset vendor providing high-quality emission reductions.

There are a number of aspects that should be considered when evaluating the quality of offsets. These include additionality, baseline determination, benefit quantification, permanence, ownership, monitoring and verification, and registration. A reliable vendor will be happy to provide you with information regarding these and other aspects of their product. Be wary of vendors that provide vague or little information concerning the quality of their offsets.

Evaluating the quality of offsets

Additionality: An offset project is only considered additional if it isn't the result of “business as usual”. In other words, a project can only be considered “additional” if it would not have happened without the extra funding from the sale of offsets. Of all the offset quality measures, additionality is the most important of them. Only by buying “additional” offsets can you be assured that your purchase is ultimately benefiting the climate. Learn More

Baseline determination: In assessing the additionality of a project, a credible approach must be used to determine its “emissions baseline,” or the emissions that would have occurred in its absence. An artificially high baseline can make it appear that a project is generating more offsets than it is in reality.

Benefit quantification: When calculating the emission reductions resulting from a project it is important that key uncertainties, such as leakage (the possibility that emissions increase elsewhere as a result of the project) be considered and incorporated into the calculations.

Permanence: In some cases offset projects may be subject to reversal in the future. In forestry projects, for example, there is the possibility that the trees may die and release their carbon back into the atmosphere as they decay. High quality projects will satisfactorily address the issue of permanence.

Ownership: Offsets must be “single-counted”. That is, the ownership of emission reductions must be made clear to prevent a provider from selling the same offset multiple times or multiple stakeholders from claiming credit for the same emission reductions. Learn More

Monitoring and verification: An offset project must be monitored by a reliable third party to assure that it is being implemented as described and that emissions are being reduced or sequestered as claimed.

Registration: Offsets and their sale should be registered with a third party to provide a paper trail. Registration helps to ensure that providers are not selling the same offset multiple times.

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