Assessing crediting scheme standards: ensuring unit quality under the Paris Agreement

This research paper proposes a framework for assessing the standards and practices of carbon crediting schemes to ensure unit quality, specifically for countries using these schemes as a basis for international emissions trading under the Paris Agreement.

• The paper defines 'unit quality' in the context of carbon offset credits as the requirement that the issuance or transfer of one unit (1 tCO2e) corresponds to an emission reduction of at least 1 tCO2e in the transferring country relative to a scenario where the carbon market program did not exist.
• Under Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement, countries may utilize existing carbon markets, such as emissions trading schemes (ETSs) and crediting schemes, to certify internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) used to meet nationally determined contributions (NDCs).
• The authors developed a framework to evaluate the standards and practices of crediting schemes regarding credit quality and have applied this framework to six existing schemes to produce preliminary results.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2021). Assessing crediting scheme standards: ensuring unit quality under the Paris Agreement. https://www.sei.org/publications/assessing-crediting-scheme-standards-ensuring-unit-quality-paris-agreement/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Assessing crediting scheme standards: ensuring unit quality under the Paris Agreement. 2021. https://www.sei.org/publications/assessing-crediting-scheme-standards-ensuring-unit-quality-paris-agreement/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Assessing crediting scheme standards: ensuring unit quality under the Paris Agreement |date=29 October 2021 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/assessing-crediting-scheme-standards-ensuring-unit-quality-paris-agreement/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2021assessing, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Assessing crediting scheme standards: ensuring unit quality under the Paris Agreement}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/assessing-crediting-scheme-standards-ensuring-unit-quality-paris-agreement/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }