With many people in the Northern Hemisphere taking vacation at the moment, some may have clicked that button on the bookings website to offset the emissions from their air travel, cruise ship or even hotel. But what happens when the button is clicked?
In a recent article, the Guardian explored the nature of the voluntary carbon market and the wealth of project types that may be triggered as a result of that click. But they didn’t explore the very nature of the voluntary market from a carbon accounting perspective. This is where the Paris Agreement should change everything.
Today, as the Guardian article notes, that click leads to a project of some description executed through the voluntary carbon market. This is a market that has arisen over the years in the absence of cross-border compliance markets for regulating the emissions of carbon dioxide. Compliance markets are created and regulated by mandatory international, regional, and sub-national carbon reduction schemes such as the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the California Carbon Market and the largely defunct Clean Development Mechanism regulated by the Kyoto Protocol. By contrast, the voluntary markets function outside of the compliance markets and enable companies and individuals to purchase carbon offsets on a voluntary basis. For example, individuals who seek to offset their CO₂ emissions and companies who would like to become climate neutral can buy an equivalent in terms of carbon credits to “neutralize” or offset their carbon footprint.
The issue that isn’t explored by the Guardian relates to the legal title to the carbon reduction. In an emissions trading system, legal title belongs to the owner of the carbon unit created by the system, which then gives that owner the right to surrender it against their emissions in complying with the rules of the trading system. But in the voluntary market this isn’t as clear, even though the units are widely referred to as offsets which therefore implies that the reductions they represent belong to the emitter. The word offset is derived from financial markets where an offsetting transaction is an activity that, in theory, exactly cancels the risks and benefits of another instrument in a portfolio. Offsetting transactions are risk management tools that allow investors and other entities to mitigate the potentially detrimental effects that could arise if they cannot simply cancel the original transaction.
But what about the title to the reductions in a project activated through the voluntary carbon market? In the new world of the Paris Agreement, governments have created Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) in which a plan is developed that shows how the country in question will reduce its emissions. For example, Kenya has stated that it will undertake an ambitious mitigation contribution and seek to abate its GHG emissions by 30% by 2030 relative to the business as usual scenario of 143 MtCO2eq; and in line with its sustainable development agenda. This is also subject to international support in the form of finance, investment, technology development and transfer, and capacity building.
When the click leads to a project in Kenya and that project is successfully executed, the emissions reduction achieved will be swept up in the assessment of Kenya’s greenhouse gas emissions at some point in the future when they are reporting out against the NDC to show how they have achieved their contribution to the Paris Agreement. As such, the voluntary project has been useful for Kenya, but its impact will have been reported as part of the Kenya NDC, which means that it isn’t technically an offset transaction against emissions in another place. This is because the project has helped Kenya and presumably eliminates the need for them to find yet more reductions in their economy to deliver on the NDC – the notional cap that they have placed on their emissions is, in part, fulfilled by the project. So the voluntary market is meeting a very specific need; it is helping finance reductions in other places against the NDC covering that location. This means it isn’t strictly an offset against emissions in the buyers location, even though a reduction clearly took place and was financed by the offset purchaser.
Under the Paris Agreement and Article 6, all this potentially changes, but it depends on the nature of the transaction. The voluntary market could continue as discussed above, as a financing mechanism for reductions in other places, or it could evolve into a fully accounted and tradable unit. In the latter case, when the unit is created in Kenya (perhaps under Article 6.4) and exported, it will trigger a change in their NDC and a change in the NDC of the country in which it is used in. Both NDCs will be adjusted such that overall global emissions remain on the same pathway. Paris is strict about double counting. The unit would also be formally recognized by both governments so title would transfer through the transaction, but the unit would now be helping the country in which the offset was purchased meet its NDC, rather than the country in which the project was executed.
A final case could see only the project host country adjust its NDC due to the export of the unit, but the importing country makes no change. The carbon title therefore remains with the offset purchaser. The unit is not used to help either country meet its respective NDC. When the unit is retired (held in perpetuity by the offset purchaser), it then represents a real offset against emissions and it takes the world slightly closer to the goal of the Paris Agreement than would otherwise have been the case.
It is still early days for the Paris Agreement and the rules of Article 6 for cross border trade of units have still to be agreed. As such, the voluntary market will continue under the current procedures. But as the Paris rules get going, expect to see things change. A further complication will be the application of these units towards flights where the emissions from the flight are already being accounted for through the new aviation emissions offset system, CORSIA, but that is for another post.
In the meantime, enjoy your vacation!!