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Assessment Challenges

Additionality

Additionality
Credit: Daniel Pintilei via Unsplash

 Additionality is a well established concept in the field of greenhouse gas reduction and carbon offsetting. It became prominent as a key concept of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (UNFCCC, 2010). Additionality means that for assessing a specific intervention, only those outcomes should be considered that are additional to what would have happened without the intervention. For example, to evaluate the benefits of a campaign to save energy, only behavioural changes caused by the campaign should be considered, while reductions in energy consumption caused by technological progress should be ignored.The concept is fundamental for designing and evaluating result based payment schemes, such as carbon farming schemes or payments for ecosystem services.

The assessment of additionality can be a challenging task. In the following sections, an overview of the concept and some assessment tools are presented.

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