Course 04 of 20 · Emissions and Carbon Desk Academy

Voluntary Market & Project Lifecycle

Stage A, Market foundations. Level 2 of 10.

The project pathway from methodology selection and validation through monitoring, verification and issuance.

123 chapters · 11 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01, Course 02

Enrol or enquire See the 123 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

11 modules · 123 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 The Manufactured Unit and Its Rule Makers Ch 1-11
  1. A Credit Is Produced by Procedure, Not Metered
  2. The Crediting Programme as Rule Maker and Issuer
  3. The Four Seats Around a Registered Project
  4. Standard, Methodology and Project Document: the Rule Hierarchy
  5. How a Programme Changes Its Own Rules
  6. Accreditation: Who Is Permitted to Audit a Project
  7. The Pathway as a Sequence of Gates
  8. Independent Programmes Against Government Run Crediting
  9. Eligibility Into a Compliance or Aviation Scheme
  10. The Development Timeline and Where Money Goes Out First
  11. What the Pathway Does Not Settle About a Credit's Worth
M1 Activity Selection and Methodology Choice Ch 12-22
  1. From an Activity to a Creditable Intervention
  2. Reading a Methodology's Applicability Conditions
  3. Searching the Methodology Library
  4. Sectoral Scopes and the Auditors They Permit
  5. Choosing Between Two Methodologies That Both Apply
  6. Methodological Tools and Shared Modules
  7. When Nothing Fits: Proposing a New Methodology
  8. Methodology Versions, Grace Periods and Locking
  9. Where Programmes Diverge on the Same Activity
  10. Crediting Period Length and Renewal by Programme
  11. A Reselection After the Wrong Methodology Was Chosen
M2 Boundary, Baseline and the Additionality File Ch 23-35
  1. The Methodology's Project Boundary Against the Entity Boundary
  2. Sources, Sinks and Reservoirs Brought Inside the Boundary
  3. The Baseline Scenario as a Counterfactual Construct
  4. Performance Benchmarks Against Project Specific Baselines
  5. Standardised Baselines and Positive Lists
  6. What a Methodology Requires an Additionality File to Show
  7. The Investment Analysis Argument and Its Assumptions
  8. Barrier Analysis and the Common Practice Test
  9. Leakage Inside the Methodology's Arithmetic
  10. Conservativeness and Uncertainty Deductions
  11. The Ex Ante Estimate and Why It Is Not a Promise
  12. Permanence Provisions Attached by the Methodology
  13. Assembling the Project Design Document
M3 Consent, Safeguards and Co-Benefits Ch 36-45
  1. Local Stakeholder Consultation as a Registration Condition
  2. Free, Prior and Informed Consent and the Evidence It Leaves
  3. Grievance Mechanisms and the Record They Must Produce
  4. Environmental and Social Safeguard Screening
  5. Benefit Sharing Arrangements in the Project File
  6. Land Tenure, Carbon Rights and Overlapping Claims
  7. Co-Benefit Certification Labels and What They Certify
  8. Community Participation Records and Their Weaknesses
  9. When a Safeguard Finding Halts Registration
  10. Reading a Consultation Record for What Is Missing
M4 Validation and Registration Ch 46-56
  1. What Validation Tests and What It Leaves Alone
  2. Appointing a Validation and Verification Body
  3. Independence, Conflict and Rotation Rules
  4. The Validation Plan and Risk Based Sampling
  5. The Validation Site Visit
  6. Corrective Action Requests and Clarification Requests
  7. Materiality in a Validation Engagement
  8. Levels of Assurance in the Validation Opinion
  9. Programme Review Before the Project Is Listed
  10. A Validation Finding Worked to Resolution
  11. When Validation Cannot Be Completed
M5 Monitoring Design and Execution Ch 57-68
  1. The Monitoring Plan Becomes a Binding Obligation
  2. Monitored Parameters Against Fixed Ex Ante Values
  3. Reading Calibration and Instrument Evidence
  4. Sampling Design for Dispersed Project Activities
  5. Data Hierarchies and When a Default Value May Be Used
  6. Remote Sensing as Monitoring Evidence
  7. Digital Monitoring and Data Integrity Controls
  8. Missing Data and the Gap Filling Rules
  9. Fixing the Monitoring Period's Start and End
  10. Deviations from the Approved Monitoring Plan
  11. Record Retention and the Chain of Evidence
  12. Writing the Monitoring Report
M6 Quantifying the Reduction After the Fact Ch 69-79
  1. Turning Monitored Parameters Into a Reduction Figure
  2. Recalculating Baseline Emissions Ex Post
  3. Project Emissions the Activity Itself Creates
  4. Applying the Leakage Deduction to the Result
  5. Reduction Against Removal and the Arithmetic Difference
  6. The Buffer Withholding Taken at Quantification
  7. Carrying the Uncertainty Deduction Into the Figure
  8. Recalculation When a Parameter Is Found Wrong
  9. Controls Against Crediting the Same Tonne Twice
  10. A Worked Quantification, Part One
  11. A Worked Quantification, Part Two
M7 Verification and Issuance Ch 80-91
  1. Verification Asks a Different Question From Validation
  2. The Verification Plan and Its Materiality Threshold
  3. Evidence Sampling on a Verification Visit
  4. Findings That Restate the Reduction Figure
  5. The Verification Statement and Its Qualifications
  6. Programme Review of an Issuance Request
  7. What Goes Into the Issuance Request File
  8. Vintage Assignment and the Monitoring Period
  9. Issued Volume Against Requested Volume
  10. Programme Fees and Levies on Issuance
  11. What Issuance Confers and What It Does Not
  12. Issuance Withheld, Reduced or Suspended
M8 The Pathway by Project Type Ch 92-103
  1. Improved Forest Management and the Harvest Counterfactual
  2. Avoided Deforestation and the Nesting Question
  3. Afforestation and Reforestation Growth Modelling
  4. Soil Carbon and the Stratified Sampling Problem
  5. Cookstoves and the Usage Parameter
  6. Landfill Gas Capture and Destruction Efficiency
  7. Industrial Gas Destruction and the Perverse Incentive Argument
  8. Renewable Electricity and the Grid Emission Factor
  9. Energy Efficiency and the Rebound Argument
  10. Biochar and the Carbon Retention Fraction
  11. Direct Air Capture With Geological Storage
  12. Blue Carbon in Mangrove and Seagrass Systems
M9 Lifecycle Events After the First Issuance Ch 104-113
  1. Crediting Period Renewal and Baseline Reassessment
  2. Grouped Projects and Adding New Instances
  3. Programmes of Activities and Their Governance
  4. Transferring Ownership of a Registered Project
  5. Migrating to a New Methodology Version Mid Project
  6. A Programme Rule Change Lands on a Registered Project
  7. Reversal Events and the Loss Notification Duty
  8. Suspension, Deregistration and Voluntary Withdrawal
  9. Corrections and Reissuance After an Error
  10. Final Monitoring Report and Project Closure
M10 The Whole Pathway and Its Limits Ch 114-123
  1. One Project End to End, Part One: Design to Registration
  2. One Project End to End, Part Two: Monitoring to Issuance
  3. A Pathway Failure the Gates Did Not Catch
  4. Reading a Public Project Record as an Outsider
  5. Where Programmes Genuinely Disagree With Each Other
  6. The Developer's Seat Against the Buyer's Seat
  7. The Cash Profile of a Project Development Programme
  8. Where This Pathway Account Is Deliberately Simplified
  9. What a Clean Pathway Does Not Prove
  10. Handing the Project File On: Who Answers What Next

The brochure gives each of these 123 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 4 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Emissions and Carbon Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway