Carbon Selection and Credit Criteria

How can you tell the quality of an offset?

Offsets must demonstrate actual emission reductions compared to what would have otherwise happened and ensure the emissions they represent are not simply released at a later date or are displaced elsewhere.

Essential components used to verify the quality of offsets across different carbon offset standards include: 

Real:

Offsets must represent actual emissions reductions that have definitively already occurred and been verified. Projections of future anticipated reductions that have not yet materialised cannot qualify as offsets that mitigate current emissions.

Additional: 

Offsets must represent emission reductions that are in addition to what would have occurred otherwise. 

Permanent:

Offsets must represent emission reductions that are non-reversible or must typically be sequestered for 25-100 years in the case of sequestration projects. 

Verifiable: 

Sufficient data must be available to ensure emission reductions can be verified by an independent auditor against an established protocol or methodology under the carbon offset program. 

Quantifiable:

Emission reductions must be reliably measured or estimated and capable of being quantified. 

Enforceable:

Offset ownership is undisputed and enforcement mechanisms exist to ensure that all offset program rules are followed and the market’s environmental integrity is maintained.