Briefing Note for ICAO Carbon Offsetting - Do’s and Don’ts

The briefing argues that any ICAO market-based measure must rely on stringent requirements to ensure emissions reductions are real, permanent, additional, and verified. It recommends that only UNFCCC-guided offset credits be eligible, while specifically advising against the use of Joint Implementation (JI) credits, voluntary market offsets, and bilateral mechanisms due to quality and oversight concerns. Furthermore, it warns that any cap-and-trade system must avoid over-allocation and prohibits the use of surplus allowances from oversupplied schemes like the EU ETS to maintain environmental integrity.

• The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) faces significant quality issues, with a 2012 study suggesting that up to two-thirds of credits expected between 2013 and 2020 could originate from business-as-usual power projects, potentially increasing emissions by 3.6 billion tonnes of CO2-eq if used for compliance.
• Joint Implementation (JI) credits are recommended for exclusion from an ICAO scheme because 95% of Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) issued to date were produced by host countries without international oversight.
• Voluntary offset programmes and bilateral offsetting mechanisms are deemed unsuitable for an ICAO scheme due to a lack of regulatory oversight and insufficient volumes.
• Existing cap-and-trade systems are severely oversupplied, with the EU ETS and International Emissions Trading (ET) under the Kyoto Protocol holding 2 billion and 13 billion surplus allowances respectively, which prevents them from driving new emissions reductions.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (2013). Briefing Note for ICAO Carbon Offsetting - Do’s and Don’ts. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Briefing_Aviation_Carbon_Offsetting_Dos_and_Donts_final.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Briefing Note for ICAO Carbon Offsetting - Do’s and Don’ts. 2013. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Briefing_Aviation_Carbon_Offsetting_Dos_and_Donts_final.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Briefing Note for ICAO Carbon Offsetting - Do’s and Don’ts |date=January 2013 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Briefing_Aviation_Carbon_Offsetting_Dos_and_Donts_final.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{carbonmarketwatch2013briefing, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Briefing Note for ICAO Carbon Offsetting - Do’s and Don’ts}}, institution = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2013}, month = jan, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Briefing_Aviation_Carbon_Offsetting_Dos_and_Donts_final.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }