By providing new revenue streams to farmers, conserving critical wildlife habitat or bringing clean, renewable energy technologies to developing countries, Verified Emission Reductions (aka, VERs or carbon offsets) offer effective solutions to further reduce your carbon footprint while generating important sustainable development co-benefits.
Judging quality in a carbon reduction project is the #1 concern of the buyer and few carbon offset projects are alike. That’s why it’s important to ask the right questions when selecting a carbon provider and offset projects. At 3Degrees, we screen our projects rigorously through the following due diligence questions and we recommend our customers ask them as well.
- Are the VERs Real, Quantifiable, Permanent, and Additional? More
Are the VERs Real, Quantifiable, Permanent, and Additional? GHG emission reductions from 3Degrees are certified as real, quantifiable, permanent, and additional, and are not counted towards any GHG emission reduction caps in any mandatory local, state, national or international GHG regulatory structure or cap-and-trade program, or in any voluntary but legally binding cap-and-trade program. These are core principles that all offsets must adhere to.
- Are the VERs from a specific project? More
3Degrees sources VERs from specific emission reduction projects. We disclose full project information such as location, project type, start date, vintage of reductions, verification protocol, VER registry, project crediting period, and social, environmental and economic “co-benefits”.
- Are the VERs verified against transparent and credible offset protocols? More
3Degrees verifies and validates VERs against objective, credible and transparent standards. You should avoid dealing with providers that use “proprietary” verification standards that are not in the public domain and lack public input. Likewise, avoid providers that “self-certify”. If a provider says “Trust us, we know quality when we see it” then ask to see their public offset protocol, a third-party verification report, and evidence the reductions are in a transparent registry.
- Are the VERs verified by an independent third-party verifier? More
With 3Degrees, VER verification is performed by an independent third-party verifier approved for the standard by the issuing body for the verification protocol.
- Does the project pass an “additionality” test? More
All 3Degrees projects pass a defined additionality test according to the protocol under which the project is verified. “Additionality” means demonstrating that the project is not common practice and goes beyond business as usual as well as legal and regulatory requirements. Additionality can also be demonstrated by showing that revenue from the sale of offsets was critical to the financial viability of the project or helped to overcome certain barriers. The former is known as a Performance Standard and latter is known as the CDM Tool for Assessment of Additionality.
- Are the VERs delivered to the buyer after verification is complete (ex-post) or in advance of verification (ex-ante)? More
For virtually all of our projects, 3Degrees delivers VERs after the emission reduction is verified. This is key because it means that the reduction has already occurred and been verified. This approach eliminates much of the risks associated with buying VERs. Verification is the ex-post determination that emission reductions are real, quantified, additional, and permanent. 3Degrees distinguishes between forward selling and forward crediting. Forward selling is a common and important practice in carbon markets to secure income streams to projects and reduction streams to buyers who are making long-term environmental commitments. Forward crediting (ex-ante) means making reduction claims against your present day footprint by using emission reductions that will occur sometime in the future. This is risky to the buyer because there's no guarantee the emission reductions purchased will be generated by the project, and therefore today's claim could be false. 3Degrees does not encourage making forward crediting claims.
Additionally, there are no independent VER protocols or certification programs that will certify forward credits prior to verification and prior to the reductions actually occurring.
- Can the provider demonstrate that the VERs are not being double sold? More
3Degrees provides several types of assurances that VERs are not sold to more than one buyer. All of the VERs we source are registered or will be registered (many of these registries are forming now) in an institutional VER registry administered by the host organization that developed the VER protocol. These VER registries guard against double selling by providing unique serial numbers for each VER and by creating transparency about each project that is registered. In addition, 3Degrees contracts with project owners to transfer the sole title of the carbon asset and all environmental claims associated with ownership to 3Degrees. Our contracts contain clear Representations and Warranties to this effect.
- What are the sustainable development co-benefits of the project? More
3Degrees emission reduction projects also generate additional social, environmental, and economic “co-benefits” beyond the CO2 reduction. These can include local employment creation, ecosystem protection, improvements in rural livelihoods, and better water management practices on dairy farms.
- Does the provider have clear legal title to the VERs? More
3Degrees will always demonstrate we have clear legal ownership of the emission reductions. We require project developers/generators to attest to the transfer of ownership when VERs are delivered to 3Degrees. Specifically, we require our suppliers to represent that the VERs were not separately sold, separately marketed, or otherwise separately represented as carbon reductions to any other parties. Additionally, verification reports (conducted by independent approved verifiers) include a standard security check to verify that the VERs are not double-sold.
- What are the project risks? More
3Degrees will disclose and address potential risks associated with the project as well as disclose any adverse negative environmental impacts, if any exist.
