Project verification plays a vital role in upholding the integrity and quality of the data reported to both mandatory and voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) programs across the world. The Climate Action Reserve (the Reserve) utilizes a standardized approach for the independent and rigorous verification of GHG emissions reductions reported by project developers into its offset registry and software, the Reserve.

This standardized approach defines a verification process that promotes the relevance, completeness, consistency, accuracy, transparency and conservativeness of emissions reductions data reported in the Reserve.

Project verification is a very important aspect of the Reserve and its key objectives are to:

• ensure projects are real, additional, permanent, verifiable and enforceable
• minimize the risk of invalid creation or double counting of Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRTs)
• support the transparency and integrity of the data contained within Reserve
• maintain that verifications are conducted in a consistent and comparable manner across projects
• assist the Reserve in monitoring project developer’s on-going compliance with the Reserve’s protocols

Verification activities differ based on the complexity of project developers’ GHG emissions reductions or removals and the underlying data supporting them. However, the verification process will include, at a minimum, the following steps:

• Notification of verification activities and case-by-case evaluation of conflict of interest
• Scoping and planning project verification activities
• Desk review and annual site visit to conduct project verification activities:
  1. Identifying emissions sources and assess risk of material misstatements
  2. Reviewing methodologies and management systems
  3. Verifying emission reduction calculations
• Preparing a project developers Verification Report, List of Findings and Verification Opinion and submitting them through the Reserve