Standards - aurimasmb/carbonoffsets GitHub Wiki

Note: these notes are incomplete! If you'd like to contribute, shoot us an email at [email protected] and [email protected]

There are two kinds of standards which are relevant in the voluntary carbon offsets market: carbon offset standards (like VCS, Gold Standard, and CDM), and carbon offset retailer standards (like QAS, ICROA, and Sustainable Business Network).

Carbon Offset Standards

	Region	Units	Registry	Independent Auditors
Verified Carbon Standard	Global	Verified Carbon Units (VCU's)	Yes. Two independent registry providers: APX, Markit.	Yes, see: Validating / Verifying Bodies VVB's
Gold Standard	Global
Clean Development Mechanism	Global (or only participating countries in Kyoto?)	Certified Emissions Reductions (CER's)	Yes. CDM Registry.	Yes. Designated Operational Entitites
Climate Action Reserve	California?

Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)

http://www.v-c-s.org/vcs-quality-assurance-principles/

Gold Standard

From http://eartheasy.com/article_carbon_offsets.htm:

Because of the above concerns, an international standard for carbon offsets was developed to differentiate high quality offsets. Known as The Gold Standard, it ensures that key environmental criteria have been met by offset projects that carry its label. Significantly, only offsets from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects qualify for the Gold Standard, as these projects encourage a shift away from fossil fuel use and carry inherently low environmental risks. Tree planting projects are explicitly excluded by The Gold Standard.

Clean Development Mechanism

The CDM has been criticised for "weak environmental integrity, high transaction costs and complex governance." by Michaelowa 2012

https://www.c2es.org/docUploads/clean-development-mechanism-review-of-first-international-offset-program.pdf

http://www.cdcclimat.com/IMG/pdf/12-10-05_climate_report_37_-_10_lessons_from_10_years_of_cdm.pdf

Units are called Certified Emissions Reduction (CER) credits.

Started with the Kyoto protocol

has some concerns with additionality - https://environment.yale.edu/blog/2007/12/additionality-and-the-cdm/ here is the CDM tool for additionality: http://cdm.unfccc.int/methodologies/PAmethodologies/tools/am-tool-01-v7.0.0.pdf

http://cdm.unfccc.int/Reference/tools/index.html

The CDM verifies additionality by:

Establishing a baseline of what emissions would be if the project were not to take place.
Computing what the emissions would be if the project does take place.

The emissions reductions are the difference of these two.

Other criticisms of the CDM:

http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/10/cdm-criticism-surges-success-china/

http://cdmpolicydialogue.org/research/1030_strengths.pdf

example projects: https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Generic-Documents/P2_Examples%20of%20CDM%20projects_AfDB_Dba_210911.pdf

CDM Crediting Period

http://eea.epri.com/pdf/ghg-offset-policy-dialogue/workshop08/EPRI_Offsets_Wrkshp8_Background-Paper_Offset-Dvlpmnt-Approval-Processes_Final2_063010.pdf

http://cdm.unfccc.int/Reference/Procedures/reg_proc04.pdf

Climate Action Reserve

Carbon Retailer Standards

Quality Assurance Standard

ICROA

ICROA Home Page

Forward-Selling

The ICROA appears to forbid "forward-selling" (selling of offsets which have not yet occurred.) That means that if BP is complying, they should only be selling offsets that have already occurred.

ICROA Code of Best Practice for Carbon Management Services Technical Specification:

Carbon credits retired by ICROA members for the purpose of offsetting their clients' greenhouse gas emissions shall be in accordance with the following principles:

2.1.1 Real: All emission reductions and removals and the project activities that generate them shall be proven to have genuinely taken place.