The quality of offsets on the voluntary offset market varies widely. We are in the process of reviewing the quality of these offsets in search of project types and individual offset projects that meet high offset quality standards. We will report the results of this analysis here as this work progresses.

Resources

Offset primers

Second Nature guidance and resources for colleges and universities. 

Broekhoff D, Gillenwater M, Colbert-Sangree T, & Cage P (2019) Securing Climate Benefit: A Guide to Using Carbon Offsets, Stockholm Environment Institute & Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. 

Voluntary Registry Offsets Database, listing all offset projects, credits issued, and credits retired from the four major voluntary market registries, including California compliance offsets. Developed by the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project and the California Institute of Energy and Environment, with support from UC's Carbon Neutrality Initiative Fellows program. 

Key articles on offset quality

Carbon Direct & Microsoft (2021) Criteria for high-quality carbon dioxide removal

Haya B, Cullenward D, Strong AL, Grubert E, Heilmayr R, Sivas DA, & Wara M (2020) Managing Uncertainty in Carbon Offsets: Insights from California’s Standardized Approach, Climate Policy, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2020.1781035

Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (2017) Ontario’s Climate Act, From Plan to Progress: Annual Greenhouse Gas Progress Report 2017, Ontario, Canada.

Cames M, Harthan RO, Füssler J, Lazarus M, Lee CM, Erickson P, & Spalding-Fecher R (2016) How additional is the Clean Development Mechanism? (pdf), Oeko Institut, Berlin.