{"id":25158,"date":"2019-12-30T10:13:14","date_gmt":"2019-12-30T09:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preprod.i4ce.org\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2023-07-25T17:17:29","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T15:17:29","slug":"domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Domestic carbon standards in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a general context of higher carbon prices and with a growing interest from companies to finance local emissions reductions projects, several European countries have started developing their own domestic carbon certification standards since the early 2010s. This study provides an overview of existing standards and of the obstacles they must overcome, as well as ideas for their future development. It notably highlights several topics on which the various European\u00a0standards could collaborate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the current situation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The benchmark conducted on nine domestic schemes identifies five key features:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Business <\/strong>&#8211; the market is consolidating: At least 3 MtCO<sub>2<\/sub>e are available to be purchased of which 66% are ex-ante. At least 2.5 MtCO<sub>2<\/sub>e are waiting to be validated or verified. Furthermore, five new domestic schemes have been launched since 2015, which points to an upcoming diversification and consolidation of the current supply of domestic projects in Europe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Methodologies &amp; activities \u2013 <\/strong>a launching pad for agriculture and land-use projects: 98% of domestic carbon units tracked are from the land-use sector. We identified four categories of methodologies: (1) forestry; (2) peatlands; (3) other innovative carbon removals (wood products, biochar, soil carbon); and (4) agriculture where methodologies are recent and the first projects have yet to be validated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Price and project size<\/strong> -Higher prices per tons CO<sub>2<\/sub>. European carbon projects are in average smaller than international carbon projects. They present higher prices with an average of <strong>13\u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e<\/strong> within a range from 6 \u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e to 110\u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e in Europe vs <strong>6\u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e<\/strong> on international markets with a price range from 0.4 \u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e to 72\u20ac\/tCO<sub>2<\/sub>e.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Governance <\/strong>\u2013 European standards are a public affair. Five standards are directly managed by public entities and four are semi-public, with strong partnership with public actors. This is a European specificity when most of international carbon standards are managed by private actors.<\/li>\n<li><strong>MRV- <\/strong>Common guidelines with specific features adapted to national contexts. The \u201cadditionality\u201d concept is used by all standards. Nonetheless, the criteria retained for its demonstration are heterogenous. Validation is mostly documentary, and verification is realized mostly five years after the start of project, with field visits. Project duration varies between 2 to 100 years, depending of the methodology used, and determines the need of ex-ante or ex-post crediting.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the challenges faced by carbon domestic standards and the solutions implemented?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reduce MRV costs and simplify processes.<\/strong> To allow the development of local carbon projects, MRV frameworks have been adapted to fit to small-scale projects and lower costs: discount rates to manage uncertainty, development of group certification scheme, diversification of auditors to carry out verification. Domestic standards (as well as most other MRV frameworks) are exploring the possibility of using remote sensing data and general information collection systems. Nevertheless, MRV costs are still identified as a challenge across Europe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deal with land-use specificities.<\/strong> The land-use and agriculture sectors are subject to specific time dynamics and risks. To deal with these, ex-ante credits are used by most standards for land-use methodologies, and discount rates and buffer pools are implemented as collegial insurance systems to deal with non-permanence risk.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Value beyond carbon benefits to allow for higher carbon prices.<\/strong> Standards need to value environmental, social and economic co-benefits of projects, as well as the contribution to local development, especially to allow for higher carbon prices.<br \/>\nDedicated resources to the standard promotion and dissemination: If the standards\u2019 management by public actors can increase buyer\u2019s trust, public institutions might have less resources to dedicate to the promotion of the standard and its dissemination throughout the territory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Bring clear and coherent communication guidelines to support the contribution to national climate targets:<\/strong> \u00a0some domestic standards knowingly disregard the \u201cdouble claiming issue\u201d and are increasingly viewed as a mean to achieve national climate targets and environmental goals. In addition, communication frameworks are slowly being built to differentiate the environmental integrity of projects from the voluntary climate strategy of companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the perspectives?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Abroad, carbon projects are increasingly being linked to compliance tools (emission trading scheme, carbon tax or sectorial compliance offsetting) as a way to channel private investments towards concrete climate projects. <strong>Using carbon projects for a compliance demand could be a viable option to trigger climate actions within the so-called \u2018diffuse sector\u2019, but should be explore carefully<\/strong> in order to not induce unintended \u201crebound effect\u201d elsewhere in national economies.<\/li>\n<li>These carbon frameworks developed at domestic level <strong>could also be used to steer subsidies<\/strong> towards result-based actions. The reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) could partly (e.g eco-shemes) rely on these standards to attribute subsidies and incentivize transition to low carbon practices in agriculture.<\/li>\n<li>Synergies between domestic standards on the European level could be developed on several topics:\n<ul>\n<li>Development of methodologies is one of the costliest activities. <strong>Sharing and disseminating already developed tools and methodologies<\/strong> would support a wider coverage of practices in Europe.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Technical collaboration around remoted sensed solutions<\/strong> is seen as one of the biggest steps in making monitoring or verification most cost-efficient.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Common communication guidelines at the European level<\/strong> on different issues raised by emission reductions projects (double-claiming, context of use of local carbon projects) could be a way to boost buyers\u2019 confidence in domestic standards and ensure long-term demand.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This study is part of a project led by <strong>I<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">4<\/span>CE<\/strong> with the EIT Climate KIC, which aimed at enhancing result-based payments for agriculture and forestry projects in Europe, especially by facilitating the emergence of a European movement on voluntary carbon markets. A part of this project especially focuses on developing cooperation between the existing carbon certification schemes in Europe. This study was also co-funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-63284 \" src=\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Climate-kic-et-ademe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"580\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Climate-kic-et-ademe.jpg 1050w, https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Climate-kic-et-ademe-300x103.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Climate-kic-et-ademe-1024x351.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/Climate-kic-et-ademe-768x263.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a general context of higher carbon prices and with a growing interest from companies to finance local emissions reductions projects, several European countries have started developing their own domestic carbon certification standards since the early 2010s. This study provides an overview of existing standards and of the obstacles they must overcome, as well as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":49704,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"type_publication":[49],"class_list":["post-25158","publication","type-publication","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type_publication-climate-report"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a general context of higher carbon prices and with a growing interest from companies to finance local emissions reductions projects, several European countries have started developing their own domestic carbon certification standards since the early 2010s. This study provides an overview of existing standards and of the obstacles they must overcome, as well as [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"I4CE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-25T15:17:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@I4CE_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/\",\"name\":\"Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-30T09:13:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-25T15:17:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg\",\"width\":724,\"height\":1024},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Domestic carbon standards in Europe\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/\",\"name\":\"I4CE\",\"description\":\"Institute for Climat Economics\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"I4CE\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/logo_I4CE-HD-qdr.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/logo_I4CE-HD-qdr.jpg\",\"width\":213,\"height\":247,\"caption\":\"I4CE\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/I4CE_\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/i4ce\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCLZEgZVIiYP6TSDrid7A3mQ\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE","og_description":"In a general context of higher carbon prices and with a growing interest from companies to finance local emissions reductions projects, several European countries have started developing their own domestic carbon certification standards since the early 2010s. This study provides an overview of existing standards and of the obstacles they must overcome, as well as [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/","og_site_name":"I4CE","article_modified_time":"2023-07-25T15:17:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":724,"height":1024,"url":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@I4CE_","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/","url":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/","name":"Domestic carbon standards in Europe - I4CE","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg","datePublished":"2019-12-30T09:13:14+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-25T15:17:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/0218-i4ce3153-DomecticCarbonStandards-pdf.jpg","width":724,"height":1024},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/publication\/domestic-carbon-standards-in-europe\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Domestic carbon standards in Europe"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/","name":"I4CE","description":"Institute for Climat Economics","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#organization","name":"I4CE","url":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/logo_I4CE-HD-qdr.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/logo_I4CE-HD-qdr.jpg","width":213,"height":247,"caption":"I4CE"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.i4ce.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/I4CE_","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/i4ce\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCLZEgZVIiYP6TSDrid7A3mQ"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication\/25158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publication"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"type_publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.i4ce.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_publication?post=25158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}