Additionality: Definition
Additionality is a principle applied to carbon removal projects, signifying that a project is additional if it leads to emissions reductions that would not have occurred otherwise.
For Sustainability Managers
Understanding Additionality is essential for accurately tracking and reducing your organisation's carbon footprint.
For CFOs
Additionality has growing financial implications as climate regulation tightens and investors demand transparency.
For Sustainability Reporting
Accurate measurement of Additionality is required for credible climate reports across all major frameworks.
Related Terms
ACCU
Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) are financial instruments awarded to eligible projects involving energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, and carbon sequestration. Each ACCU represents the avoidance or removal of one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2-e) GHG emissions. ACCUs are traded or sold on the national environmental commodity market through carbon market agents, allowing organisations to offset their carbon footprint or fulfil emissions reduction obligations.
Activity-based method
Activity data specifies the quantity of a particular product or material a company has purchased, enabling more precise emissions estimates than spend-based data. This method employs emission factors obtained from scientific studies.
Base year
Setting emission reduction targets entails specifying a base year and establishing annual reduction goals as a percentage of emissions from the base year.
Cap and trade
Cap and trade is a market-based approach to lowering GHG emissions, where authorities allocate permits for a limited amount of emissions, enabling trading among companies to meet their emission limits.
Carbon accounting
Carbon accounting involves measuring the carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) emitted by an organisation.