Complete Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for inclusion in The Carbon Offset List, emission reductions must meet the following criteria:
1. Only direct emission reductions are eligible.
Indirect emission reductions from energy generation, such as renewable energy certificates (RECs), are not eligible. Proposals that include RECs or other indirect emissions reductions will not be considered.
2. The emission reductions must be additional.
For a carbon offset project to be additional, the project must demonstrate that it is beyond business as usual and must not include claims of emission reductions that would have occurred under a business as usual scenario. A reasonable baseline should be demonstrated and justified from potential alternative baseline candidates. Detailed information to demonstrate that project activities were not compelled by regulatory requirements and detailed information on the project-specific development barriers that were overcome (e.g., technology, R&D, common practice, institutional, economic, etc.) should be provided.
3. The quantification of emission reductions must be reliable and accurate.
Project assessment boundaries must include all primary emissions sources and all significant secondary emissions sources associated with the project. Project proponents must provide an assessment of leakage, i.e., any emissions shifted out of the project boundary (leakage) must be identified and accounted for when calculating the total quantity of emission reductions claimed. Best practice methodologies should be documented for emissions reduction calculations, including both baseline and project emissions. Use of conservative approaches and assumptions must be demonstrated in order to prevent overstatement of emissions reductions.
4. The permanence (or limitations on permanence) of emission reductions must be clearly explained and justified.
In projects where there is a risk of an unexpected future reversal of achieved reductions, a project developer must hold conservative levels of insurance or reserves of emission reductions, or provide some other guarantee to replace any unexpected reversals. Please submit a monitoring plan that helps provide a high degree of confidence that the risk of unexpected future reversals is reasonably low and describes how potential reversals will be monitored, measured and/or estimated in the event they occur. For agriculture, forestry, and other land use projects (terrestrial sequestration), activities to prevent and mitigate the reversal of achieved emission reductions should be described. For geologic sequestration projects, please provide an evaluation (e.g., geophysical, geomechanical, geochemical and hydrogeologic considerations) of the capacity and integrity of the geologic confinement system and expert opinion (e.g., geologic, geophysical, or petroleum geology expert opinion) that a specified percentage of the amount injected can reasonably be expected to remain out of the atmosphere.
5. The emission reduction project's start date and timeframe must be clearly defined.
The start date of the offset project must be provided (month/year), as well as detailed information about the timeframe in which the emission reductions were or are expected to be achieved. Also, a brief description of key dates from the project's development history should be included (e.g., initial/phased construction dates, extended start-up periods, ownership changes, etc.). A preference will be given to projects that have already begun commercial operations, and those that are expected to start operations in 2008. However, we are also interested in learning about projects where emission reductions are expected to be achieved in the near future, i.e. in the next 2-3 years.
6. An offset provider must demonstrate clear ownership of the claimed emission reductions.
The provider must demonstrate unique and exclusive proof that clear title to and ownership of the emission reductions has been demonstrated and transferred with the offset. Documentation of and attestation to undisputed title to all emission reductions claimed by the carbon offset project should be provided. Excerpts from title/rights agreements, contracts, leases, and other ownership documentation for gases, emissions, emission reductions or attributes, emission reduction values, etc. are acceptable examples. In the absence of such a clear ownership position, the project proponent must provide demonstrable assurance and documentation of their clear and defensible rights to ownership, and their ability to successfully withstand any potential competing claim to ownership of the emission reductions.
7. Emission reductions must be serialized and tracked to assure that offsets are not double counted or resold after retirement.
Emission reductions must be serialized and tracked, preferably on a registry system, to prevent individual emission reductions from being sold multiple times (double counted) or resold after retirement. Please provide a detailed description of the serialization and tracking system in use by the offset provider, and identify any applicable registry that currently houses the emission reductions.
8. All claims should be independently verified and verifiable.
All emission reduction claims should be verified against credibility criteria comparable to those set forth in this attachment by a third party verifier with no financial or pecuniary interest in the project. The methods and assumptions used to develop, calculate, and verify the emission reductions should be sufficiently transparent that they are independently verifiable to another interested party. The project developer and provider must also agree to participate in ongoing quality assurance/quality control assessment by EDF and/or its designee. Copies of all verification reports and supporting documentation/materials (e.g., project protocols or design documents) must be provided.
9. The emission reductions should be generated in ways that produce net positive environmental and community impacts.
The project developer should assess the direct and indirect non-climate-related environmental and community impacts of its project activities and demonstrate that the net effect of the impacts is positive.
Posted: 09-Sep-2008; Updated: 14-Aug-2008
