When considering purchasing carbon offsets, it is critical that you ensure that the projects have been verified to acceptable third party standards. This way you can be sure that your contribution is genuinely going towards helping mitigate the effects of climate change. There are many different standards that can be considered “acceptable”:

ISO 14064-2

Focuses on GHG projects or project based activities specifically designed to reduce GHG emissions for increase GHG removals. It includes principles and requirements for determining project baseline scenarios and for monitoring, quantifying and reporting project performance relative to the baseline scenario and provides the basis for GHG projects to be validated and verified.

www.iso.org

CCB Standards

The Climate, Community and Biodiversity Project Design Standards (CCB Standards) evaluate land-based carbon mitigation projects in the early stages of development. The CCB Standards foster the integration of best-practice and multiple-benefit approaches into project design and evolution. The Standards:

• Identify projects that simultaneously address climate change, support local communities and conserve biodiversity.
• Promote excellence and innovation in project design.
• Mitigate risk for investors and increase funding opportunities for project developers.

www.climate-standards.org