ADDITIONALITY

Additionality refers to the principle that emission reductions or removals from a climate project must result from the project’s implementation due to the financial incentive provided by carbon credits. This concept ensures that the project’s impact is truly incremental and would not have occurred without the additional funding, confirming that the mitigation activity is directly driven by the support from carbon credits. 

The concept of additionality is crucial for maintaining the integrity and credibility of carbon credit markets. If a project is non-additional, it means that the claimed emission reductions would have happened even without the carbon credits, thus undermining the purpose of the credits. Additionally, it ensures that the carbon credits represent real, measurable, and verifiable emission reductions. This is vital for companies and individuals purchasing these credits, as it guarantees that their investment contributes to actual environmental benefits.  

Additionality is demonstrated by conducting the following analysis: 

• Baseline analysis: Establishing a baseline scenario to demonstrate what would happen without the project. 
• Investment analysis: Demonstrating that without the revenue from carbon credits, the project would not be financially attractive. 
• Barrier analysis: Identifying and proving the barriers that would prevent the project from happening without the carbon finance. 
• Common practice analysis: Ensuring the project activity is not a common practice within the sector and region.  

At FORLIANCE, we ensure that our nature-based carbon projects adhere to the highest standards of additionality, providing verifiable and meaningful contributions to climate change mitigation.