Publication details

The Carbon Farming Initiative: A proposed common practice framework for assessing additionality

Publication date: 15 Aug 2012

Like all carbon offset schemes, the Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) must meet internationally recognised offset integrity standards, including the requirement of additionality, to ensure that all credits are genuine and competitive on domestic and international carbon markets.

A common practice assessment is used to meet the additionality standard for the CFI. Common practice tests measure the extent to which an abatement activity has already occurred in a relevant 'comparison group'. If an activity is already common practice across similar operations then it can be assumed that barriers (financial, social or technical) to its adoption have been overcome without the additional enabling policy mechanism provided by the CFI and is, therefore, not additional.

In the past, some other offset schemes that have used common practice tests for additionality have stipulated thresholds for what constitutes common practice without much empirical analysis. This paper proposes a framework for the common practice test based on lessons learned from other carbon offset schemes, academic literature and the results of mathematical analyses. This proposed framework provides the CFI with a cutting-edge, streamlined approach to assessing additionality that minimises transaction costs, while ensuring that CFI credits stand up to international scrutiny.

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Key Document(s)

The Carbon Farming Initiative: A proposed common practice framework for assessing additionality (Technical report 12.02) - Paper - PDF [2.8 MB]

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The Carbon Farming Initiative: A proposed common practice framework for assessing additionality (Technical report 12.02) - Paper - MS Word [3 MB]