THE SOLUTION
The CSG Standard provides customizable solutions and low costs for a wide range of climate protection projects which enable adaptability to specific and local needs and thus assist in the widespread adoption of small-scale local projects:
Rigid compliance criteria
A common feature of conventional carbon standards is that they typically seek to develop criteria and methodologies applicable anywhere in the world in the same format. However, this feature often decreases the carbon financing opportunities for local projects.
Global results through local projects
The CSG Standard puts forward that in many cases it is more important for the project to be local than to force it to meet generic global requirements. This way local carbon ofsetting demands can be connected with the local suppliers and a much more significant effect can be induced in the project’s micro-environment.
Overly regulated
Typical recent standards require projects to comply with complicated additionality criteria. Even if a project would involve substantial environmental benefits, a conventional carbon standard would exclude such project without financial additionality, that is, if the realization of the project does not require the issuing of credits. These, however, hinder the realization of many projects that would otherwise efficiently reduce emissions.
Flexibility
Besides the provable environmental benefits, the CSG Standard requires only the fulfilment of the legal additionality criterion. Projects without demonstrating financial additionality would qualify as well with the strict provision that 70 per cent of the profit coming from the sale of credits has to be channelled into supporting NGOs working towards raising local environmental awareness.
Very high costs
Current carbon schemes usually fail to acknowledge that project owners choose carbon financing because they require additional financial resources. Nevertheless, these conventional standards incur substantial additional costs which many times the project developers cannot sustain.
Cost-effective
The CSG Standard helps in setting up a financing system that optimally promotes the realization of small projects according to the local economic conditions. It includes demand-driven methodology development, low rates and flexible payment terms and complete support from the project idea to sales.
