EMISSIONS INSIGHTS BLOG
The concept of emissions management progressed from the realm of the environmentalist through society to the business board room. The progressive organizations are shifting away from traditional business to adopt sustainability.
Define the Additionality Tool
What is the Principle Behind an Additionality Tool?
The principle of additionality asks a fundamental question: would the activity have occurred if it were not part of an offset project? In other words, a project should only be able to earn credits if greenhouse gas reductions would not have occured in any case. Greenhouse gas offset projects must be quantifiable and must be adjudged to be true to uphold the very values of the program itself.
Some projects are subject to what is called an additionality tool. This has been developed in the case of developing countries and economies to take into account relevant financial and technological barriers and to help ensure that the results output obtains the highest level.
To be able to determine rules for additionality, it is first necessary to quantify the greenhouse gas benefits associated with a certain carbon offsets project. For this to happen a baseline set of principles must be established and an associated, hypothetical scenario of emissions projected. This hypothesis leads to significant issues as it is just that, hypothetical.
There are a variety of offset programs in existence. In general, they operate according to the standardized testing approach or operate according to an individual project by project analysis.
Additionality Tool is Useful When it Comes to Implementing Clean Development Mechanisms for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction
Project specific tests commonly use the additionality tool as specified under the Clean Development Mechanism or CDM, which in turn evaluates whether the project is driven by associated revenue or whether it has had to overcome barriers prior to implementation. Projects must exceed commonplace and legal requirements, and this approach is less favored as it is in part based on subjective analysis and relies heavily on the additionality tool.
It is more common to adopt a standardized method of assessing additionality by reference to benchmarks or common practice. This is a much easier approach and is generally far more transparent. However if specific conditions exist in the local environment, they may not be taken into account and will thus cause significant local difficulty. Most leading protocols do rely heavily on the standardized approach to additionality definition.
Different Options for Additionality Tool
There are, in addition, a variety of quantification methods used to determine how emission reductions are measured. Many options exist and some have been designed by project participants, determined “bottom up,” while others are designed by authorities and administrators, “top down.” It follows that in developing countries and areas where technologies are still being developed a bottom-up approach is more common, whereas in developed areas and where recognized work and definitions are established a top-down approach is prescribed.
The additionality tool is however felt to be very robust and to give a high level of assurance as it focuses on the potential existence of financial, technological and other barriers that might get in the way of accurate emission reporting.
About Verisae
Verisae helps measure, manage and reduce equipment and energy costs including the related business and environmental impacts of carbon emissions. The Sustainability Resource Planning (“SRP”) software platform improves operational efficiency, protects brand integrity and helps ensure regulatory compliance for distributed enterprises across many industries. Verisae delivers a broad range of sustainability solutions to dozens of clients globally with thousands of daily users including an extended network of third-party suppliers. Verisae’s integrated sustainability platform actively tracks millions of assets across thousands of sites worldwide.
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