Trust, but Verify
In previous posts, we explored the role that time and money play in establishing the quality of carbon credits. This post discusses the last criterion OffsetC applies to assess quality: verifiability. What do we know about a project and how do we know it?
Verifiability means that a project is well-managed by:
Keeping good records
Using best scientific and engineering practices to monitor project operations and outcomes
Providing public access to documentation so that anyone can verify the project’s activities, carbon offsets, and credit retirements
Confirming the project’s documented methods and activities via regular site visits
This information is crucial to assess all other attributes. It permits all players in the carbon market to know what they’re buying and verify the offsets. All projects offered through OffsetC have the necessary documentation, on-site analysis, and access to carbon credit transaction data. Rating agencies and buyers need this data to ensure that we’re having the expected impact.
Knowing what we know: Verifiability
The methods and documents to verify a project usually run hundreds of pages per project. They differ depending on the type of carbon project. A reforestation project’s methods and standards look very different from those of a methane capture project. But verifiability has three main parts shared by all projects.
First, there is the body of documentation that confirms whether a project has met – and continues to meet – all the appropriate technical, legal, and regulatory standards. Every project OffsetC offers makes this documentation publicly accessible.
Second, the carbon removal or avoidance can be precisely estimated independent of what the project developers claim as their reductions. Independent third-party rating agencies evaluate specific projects’ carbon reductions using the available documentation. They publish objective reports that inform carbon credit purchasers’ decisions about which projects to support.
The rating agency Renoster(link), for instance, primarily evaluates the kinds of ‘avoided deforestation’ projects we discussed in an earlier blog post. If you want to wade deeper into how they estimate a project’s carbon reductions, check out their freely published analyses and videos of each project they rate. We love their open-source, informative, and transparent ethos.
Third, verifiability means OffsetC can track a carbon credit across its life-cycle. Briefly, a credit is ‘born’ when a project actually removes or avoids one ton of carbon dioxide emissions. The credit ‘lives its life’ being bought, sold and traded, much like a stock. However, unlike a stock, every carbon credit will eventually be ‘retired’. This means it is no longer able to be bought, sold, or traded, and hence the corresponding carbon is removed from atmospheric circulation, literally.
Retiring a Carbon Credit
Once a specific credit has been retired, that information is publicly and irrevocably published by ‘registries’, such as Verra and Isometric, that enforce standards and keep records in the carbon marketplace. OffsetC retires every single credit we buy on your behalf within one month. As an OffsetC user, you can see which credits your funds helped retire in your monthly impact report.
In the final post in this series, we’ll discuss additional co-benefits a project may provide to local communities, distinct from its carbon activities.
Heard enough and want to start taking climate action by offsetting your fuel purchases? Join our carbon crusade!
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Our Understanding Carbon Offsets Series:
Part 4: Trust, but Verify
Part 5: Beyond Carbon: Do Good, Not Harm
