PROJECT SELECTION CRITERIA
In order for us to select a project for funding, it must meet a strict set of criteria guaranteeing that reductions in CO2 emissions are additional, measurable, permanent, and do not generate leakage.
Additional
A project is considered additional only when it depends for its existence on the sale of emissions offsets. This guarantees that when you purchase CO2 reductions from an additional project you are effectively ensuring its continued existence. If a wind farm makes a profit by selling electricity to the grid it is not considered additional, and the reductions in emissions it generates (the fact it is profitable does not preclude it generating CO2 reductions!) cannot therefore be taken into account when offsetting your CO2 emissions.
The additional nature of a project can be guaranteed in a variety of ways; for example by proving that without the sale of CO2 emissions offsets the project would be unprofitable, or not profitable enough to sustain itself, or that the necessary technology does not yet exist in the country where the project is to be carried out.
Permanent
The emissions reductions the project produces must be permanent.
For example, renewable energy generates permanent emissions reductions because by replacing the energy coal-fuelled power stations would otherwise generate, it helps reduce the level of CO2 emissions that remain in the atmosphere for 100 years.
In contrast, the CO2 absorbed by the growing trees in a newly planted forest might be re-released into the atmosphere if the forest were to burn down, in which case the emissions reductions could not be considered permanent.
Measurable reductions
The amount of emissions reductions a project produces is calculated in two stages.
Firstly we establish a referential model corresponding to the quantity of emissions that would have been produced in the absence of the project. For example, if the project consists of building a wind farm to replace energy produced by a coal-fuelled power station, the referential model corresponds to the level of CO2 the power station would have emitted in the absence of the wind farm.
Next we measure the actual quantity of electricity produced annually by the wind farm, which can vary from year to year according to the quantity of wind. The emissions reductions generated by the project correspond to the actual quantity of electricity produced that year. In the case of a project like the large scale distribution of free energy-saving light bulbs, where the exact source of CO2 reductions is imprecise, and where we cannot calculate how long any given light bulb will last, we calculate reductions on a basic average scale.
Absence of leakage
A project should not generate leakage, i.e. additional CO2 emissions outside its own radius of activity.
For example, if we plant a forest on land purchased from a landowner who then proceeds to cut down another forest, the corresponding deforestation constitutes leakage.
