Beyond Pure Offsetting: Assessing Options to Generate Net Mitigation Effects

This research paper evaluates methods for carbon market-based mechanisms to generate net emission reductions in host countries, concluding that applying discounts to avoided emissions and standardising below business-as-usual are the most promising options.

• Existing project-based carbon market mechanisms, specifically the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI), fail to directly impact global greenhouse gas emission levels or contribute to the national emission reduction targets of host countries because they function only to replace or offset emissions.
• The research identifies the use of 'standardisation below business as usual' and the application of 'discounts' on the amount of avoided emissions for issuing carbon credits as the most effective options for generating net emission reductions, compared to 'over-conservativeness' and 'limiting the crediting period'.
• To maintain attractiveness and cost-efficiency, the authors suggest that these mitigation options should be applied differently across project types based on their internal rate of return.

APA

NewClimate Institute (2014). Beyond Pure Offsetting: Assessing Options to Generate Net Mitigation Effects. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/beyond-pure-offsetting-assessing-options-to-generate-net-mitigation-effects

Chicago

NewClimate Institute. Beyond Pure Offsetting: Assessing Options to Generate Net Mitigation Effects. 2014. http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/beyond-pure-offsetting-assessing-options-to-generate-net-mitigation-effects.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=NewClimate Institute |title=Beyond Pure Offsetting: Assessing Options to Generate Net Mitigation Effects |date=22 May 2014 |url=http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/beyond-pure-offsetting-assessing-options-to-generate-net-mitigation-effects |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{newclimateinstitute2014beyond, author = {{NewClimate Institute}}, title = {{Beyond Pure Offsetting: Assessing Options to Generate Net Mitigation Effects}}, institution = {NewClimate Institute}, year = {2014}, month = may, url = {http://www.newclimate.org/resources/publications/beyond-pure-offsetting-assessing-options-to-generate-net-mitigation-effects}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }