Facts About Our Climate Protection Projects

1. Principles of voluntary climate action: Voluntary climate contributions are a meaningful complement to internal corporate avoidance and reduction measures — never a substitute. We consistently communicate this clear distinction to our customers. At Climate Austria, we also move away from the traditional “ton-for-ton offsetting principle” and instead promote a voluntary climate contribution outside a company’s own value chain, as currently recommended by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
    

2. Certifications and methodologies: Our international CO₂ certificates are certified according to globally recognized standards such as Gold Standard or Verra, and are based on methodologies that undergo public consultation processes before implementation. Calculation parameters — such as the fNRB value in cookstove projects — are currently being revised internationally; however, final adjustments have not yet been adopted and will only be reflected in the market with some delay. We continuously monitor these developments and regularly adapt our portfolio to the latest requirements of the relevant international standards.
    

3. Clean cooking projects: We include clean cooking projects in our portfolio because they are among the most effective sustainability measures in the Global South. In addition to reducing CO₂ emissions, they promote health (e.g., fewer respiratory diseases), education, and economic participation, and contribute to poverty alleviation — especially for women and children. Given that many OECD countries are significantly cutting their official development cooperation budgets, we believe that voluntary climate contributions to cookstove projects — with their numerous socio-economic co-benefits — are more important than ever.
    

4. Visual Material on our website: In visualizing our projects, we use stock photos, as is standard industry practice. These images serve solely for general illustration purposes — not to depict specific project activities.
    

5. Ongoing observation of developments: The voluntary carbon market is currently undergoing further development: New international standards such as the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) — a quality label awarded by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) — as well as independent rating agencies are contributing to greater transparency, quality, and credibility. The regulations of the Paris Agreement (Article 6.4) also play a key role. Climate Austria closely monitors these developments to provide our clients with reliable guidance. The recent recognition of several forest protection projects as CCP-compliant demonstrates that the market is capable of responding to criticism, evolving, and making a meaningful contribution to global climate protection.

First-hand insights into how we work:
We interviewed our Climate Austria Director, Wolfgang Diernhofer, to discuss our work, quality standards, and projects.

Click here for the full interview

Copyright Foto: © beboy/ Shutterstock