5.7 No Double Counting

The Nature Climate Standard has established rules and procedures to mitigate the risk of double counting, which can occur in various forms, including double issuance, double use, and double claiming.

Double issuance (when more than one unique unit is issued for the same mitigation outcome) is not allowed, and the Nature Climate Standard has checks in place to prevent this. Any mitigation activity listed on the Nature Climate Standard registry must not be listed on another program and cannot be used to make a separate mitigation claim elsewhere. ISO 14064-2:2019 outlines that the project proponent must adhere to rigorous reporting procedures (Section 6.13) to ensure transparency and prevent errors or duplications in claims.

Double use (when an issued credit is further transferred, used, or retired after already being retired) is prevented through a transparent, public record of all credits and retirements. This ensures that all retirements used for mitigation target claims can be uniquely identified and traced back to the specific mitigation outcome activity the credit was issued against. Once a credit has been retired, it cannot be used again. The use of the credits is strictly limited to the voluntary carbon market for climate protection measures.

Double claiming (when an issued credit is claimed twice toward achieving mitigation targets or goals) is not permitted on the Nature Climate Standard registry. For any credit, no separate mitigation claims can be made for the underlying mitigation outcome from which the credit was issued. The Nature Climate Standard will monitor for instances of double claiming, and credit account users engaging in double claiming may have their credit account suspended.