Since the beginning of the 2000s, over ten billion US dollars worth of CO2 certificates have been traded on the voluntary carbon market - a significant contribution to private climate financing. However, the market has been shrinking since 2021. In addition, there were repeated reports of scandals in 2023, which further accelerated the market decline and damaged the reputation of companies: businesses involved in the voluntary carbon market are now often confronted with accusations of greenwashing, for example because the CO2 certificates purchased were not of sufficient quality and were not backed up with real CO2 reductions. Nevertheless, more and more companies are seeking to fulfil their responsibility in tackling the climate crisis by supplementing their internal decarbonisation measures with support for climate protection projects outside their own value chains. Against this background, the Wuppertal Institute has developed a comprehensive guide to the contribution claim model on behalf of the Foundation Development and Climate Alliance. The model constitutes an alternative to the conventional offsetting model: Companies that no longer wish to offset unavoidable emissions by purchasing CO2 certificates on the voluntary carbon market can find a forward-looking and effective solution in the contribution claim model.
The guideline was developed under the direction of scientists from the Wuppertal Institute in cooperation with the Foundation Development and Climate Alliance in a participatory process with key stakeholder groups from the private sector, society and politics in Living Labs and is divided into two interwoven parts. The first part comprises the requirements for organisations wishing to use the contribution claim model: Overarching requirements, specifications for balancing greenhouse gas emissions, for setting targets and implementing internal climate protection measures, for supporting climate protection outside their own value chains as well as for reporting and communication. The second part describes the requirements for climate protection measures outside the organisations' value chains: specifications on governance and implementation as well as meta-requirements. These are applied to three different financing options: When purchasing and decommissioning CO2 certificates, when supporting climate protection funds and when directly financing own projects.
The guidelines have been designed for organisations and companies of all sizes that want to further develop their climate protection strategies and focus on sustainable alternatives. In addition to the above-mentioned requirements and specifications, it contains approaches for implementing the contribution claim model in the corporate climate protection strategy.
The guidelines can be downloaded free of charge via the links below.
