Trees

FREQUENTLY
ASKED
QUESTIONS

ONE CARBON WORLD
GRANT FUND

If you've got a question, the chances are we've been asked it before. These are the most popular questions we get...

What is a carbon credit?

A carbon credit is the name given for a unit of one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Specifically, in this case, carbon dioxide that has been reduced, or sequestrated via a project.

Carbon credits fulfill their role when they are retired, this certificated action means they then become Offsets. The retirement of the carbon credit is the last stage of the lifecycle and their function has been fulfilled.

When we retire carbon credits to balance the carbon emissions for your organisation or project, we record your name and the specific project the carbon credits came from. In addition, we record the credits identification serial number and the certificate for each. We do this to ensure that the retired carbon credits don’t go back into the system and that your carbon has been certified as such. This is why we only retire Verified Carbon Credits with high additionality scores for you.

Carbon credits whether retired or circulated are registered, this work is completed by independent registries. These independent organisations are transparent in their work so that the relating data is publicly available. This is a vital back stop to the certified process.

The projects we work with meet the highest standard and stringent criteria in order to attain accreditation. Additionality is the most important aspect that we work to, this means that the projects that our credits are drawn from are entitled to generate carbon offset credits by demonstrating clearly that they couldn’t have been delivered without the vital investment created from the sale of those credits.



What does carbon offset mean?

A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.

Typically a business or organsiations will measure and reduce their carbon footprint and then compensate what they cant reduce with carbon credits to 'offset' their impact.



What does carbon neutral mean?

Carbon Neutral or Carbon neutrality, or net zero carbon footprint. Defines a state where an organisation, event or action is net zero in terms of CO2e emissions. This is achieved by creating a balance between the amount of CO2e emissions and the amount combined via offset, sequestrated and carbon credits.



What Standards do you offer?

Carbon Neutral International Standard

Carbon Neutral International Standard is particularly useful if you already know your carbon footprint or have very precise carbon reduction goals.

Our team can guide you through this process and help you to neutralise the Carbon footprint of your organisation or event with up to 50% funded support on acceptance.

If you don’t already know your footprint, then we will help you to calculate it. This can have significant economic benefit, not only with a potential reduced requirement for carbon credits, significantly more cost effective, the savings and financial efficiencies can be employed in additional and creative ways.



​What does “awarded Carbon Neutral International Standard ” mean?

This means that your organisation has established a systematic and methodical approach to a low carbon economy, that you have implemented a strategy and have become engaged, and more importantly that you are experiencing rewards and have become proactive.



How does One Carbon World choose which Carbon Offset projects to support?

Our independent panel choose from programmes that as a prerequisite have a scoring factor of 6 or above in economic impact and supporting the local community, and a scoring factor of 6 or above in local bio-diversity enhancement. However, a score of 6 is a minimum benchmark for a project to be considered; many projects score 8,9 or 10. The social impact of the programmes we carefully select includes improved health and educational facilities. Further checks are carried out on understanding support requirements and future plans.



Why should organisations support Verified Carbon Credit and UN projects and programmes?

As long as fossil fuels are burned, forests are currently the only viable and scalable answer to re-capture carbon or CO2 from our atmosphere. In fact, the Paris Agreement underscores the urgent need for carbon sinks like forests to meet the ambition to limit global temperature rise to ‘well below 2°C’.



Are carbon credits permission to pollute?

No. Carbon credits are an investment in emission reductions to drive the transition to a low-carbon economy. Even with clean energy gaining momentum, there is a tremendous gap to fill to meet the ‘well below 2°C’ target the Paris Agreement sets for limiting global temperature rise. Companies that set ‘Science Based Targets,’ that is, internal emission reduction targets in line with what science tells us to limit warming to 2°C’, and then go beyond by supporting projects that reduce global emissions, are demonstrating corporate best practice in terms of climate action. By choosing high additionality projects for their carbon credit purchases, they are also helping to bring sustainable development benefits – like access to energy and water, new jobs, and better health – to communities around the world.



What are Social and Biodiversity benefits?

All our Carbon Credits are produced by Verified Carbon Credit projects that are carefully selected and assessed by us to ensure that they are ‘holistic’.

The projects we have selected not only reduce carbon but also provide a high level of additional benefits that encompass bio-diversity, social enhancement and micro and macro economic development.

Bio-diversity is defined as the variety of living organisms in all terrestrial or

aquatic ecosystems. Our Verified Carbon Credit projects are part of the ecological complex. The projects have been developed to ensure they have a positive impact on local ecosystems.

The social and economic benefits that are created in local communities include

Sustainable local employment and economic empowerment,

Local education funding,

Improved local health and welfare facilities.

By participating in offset with Carbon Credits you invest in local communities.



My question wasn’t answered here, what can I do now?

Contact us at hello@onecarbonworld.com if you have any further questions.



Why carbon neutral?

According to the United Nations, "to avoid the worst effects of climate change, science tells us that we must limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius, which is also the central goal of the Paris Agreement. To achieve this objective, relying solely on governmental action will not be sufficient". Verified Carbon Offset programs are vital catalysts to achieve real and meaningful change and low carbon economies.



What is the  UN Climate Neutral Now initiatve?

Climate Neutral Now is an initiative launched by the UN Climate Change in 2015, aiming at encouraging and supporting all levels of society to take climate action to achieve a climate neutral world by mid-century, as enshrined in the Paris Agreement adopted the same year.



We have multi sites internationally, does the grant support this?

A network of global independent Carbon experts working in over 30 languages has been created to support international operations.



What are CERs and VERs?

The grant fund has been created specifically to directly support United Nations Clean Development Mechanism projects e.g. hydro, wind etc. in developing nations such as India. These projects produce CERs (certified emissions reductions) that are used to off-set emissions through the UN platform.

But also, and we believe more importantly, as 1/3 of all global carbon emissions currently come from deforestation, the fund has primarily been created to support forestation projects that are directly linked to health and education projects in South America. These projects produce VERs (voluntary emissions reductions) that are used to off-set emissions through the Verified Carbon Standard



How can I reduce our carbon footprint?

After measuring a carbon footprint, most organisations are left with the task of finding practical, cost effective ways to reduce it. There are many ways to reduce your carbon footprint and our top 5 tips are a good starting guide (together with our expert support to help you further!)
1. Reduce energy use For most companies, energy use is by far the largest contributor to their carbon footprint, often accounting for up to 50% of a carbon footprint. 2. Recycle more and send less waste to landfill 3. Fly less frequently Business travel can be a significant portion of an organisational carbon footprint. 4. Reduce fuel use 5. Sustainable procurement For some organisations, a large portion of their carbon footprint is as a result of embedded carbon emissions from their supply chain.



How can I measure my organisation's footprint?

Each organisation has a unique and different carbon footprint.
That is why One Carbon World and its team of technical experts can now report on over 7000 calculations. Our team will guide you through this process and will help you to measure your Scope 1,2 and 3 emissions.



What is Scope 1,2 and 3?

The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three ‘scopes’. These scopes assist to define the sources of pollutants within each organisation.
Scope 1 Emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources.
Scope 2 Emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased
energy.
Scope 3 Emissions that are a consequence of your actions, which occur at
sources which you do not own or control and which are not classed as scope 2 emissions. We can send you a free guide on measuring your emissions.