Develop/Revise A Methodology

In addition to in-house UCR methodologies, the UCR CoU Standard also allows for the use of all methodologies approved by the UNFCCC's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) into the UCR Program for earning CoUs, provided the project activity is also within the approved list of scopes within the UCR Standard.

Environmental Additionality and Do No Net Harm integrity is at the heart of the UCR program. Methodologies are required to establish a project’s emissions baseline, or expected emissions without the project, and to monitor the actual ongoing emissions once a project is implemented. The difference between the baseline and actual emissions determines what a project is eligible to earn in the form of credits.

Methodologies are essential when quantifying emission reductions in an uncapped environment on a project-by project basis. The function of methodologies is easy to grasp, but the methodologies themselves can be quite complex. There are cases when a project activity qualifies for emission reductions under an older version of an approved methodology but not a current version of the same methodology. There are also project activities which cut emissions but are without a suitable methodology to quantify the same. UCR periodically reviews existing methodologies to ensure they continue to reflect best practices, scientific consensus, and evolving market conditions and technical developments in a sector.

If you wish to propose a new methodology for the UCR Board to consider and approve, please submit the following proposal documents (in MS Word and/or PDF format) to info@ucarbonregistry.io:

• Describe or propose the outline for a "New baseline and monitoring methodology” in the proposal;
• Prepare a draft project concept note (PCN) of the planned UCR project activity that intends to apply the proposed new methodology, and address at least 50% of the PCN requirements.

If you wish to propose a revision to an approved methodology or methodological tool, that does not result in the exclusion or narrowing of the applicability conditions of the said methodology, then please email a proposal outlining the issue and proposed solution related to the said methodology (e.g. you wish to propose using an older version of an updated and renamed methodology or increasing the yearly cap set forth on emission reductions for certain project types etc).

If the UCR expert committee and/or advisory board members agree with the proposed methodology/changes/revision, the cost and additional communication will be communicated to the proposing entity. All approved changes will be announced in the Update section of the website.