Credit Integrity and Quality Principles
What is additionality in carbon projects?
Additionality ensures that a project’s carbon savings would not happen without carbon finance. It’s the backbone of carbon credit legitimacy — credits must represent new, not already required, emission reductions.
Sentinel Earth only supports projects that are rigorously tested for financial, legal, and regulatory additionality, ensuring each credit delivers a real climate impact.
What is permanence in carbon offsets?
Permanence refers to how long a project’s emission reduction or removal benefit will last — ideally, for centuries. Forest fires, ecosystem collapse, or reversal risks can undermine this.
Sentinel Earth mitigates permanence risk with robust project design, long-term monitoring, and buffer pool contributions — ensuring that our climate impact sticks.
What is permanence risk in nature-based credits?
Permanence risk refers to the chance that stored carbon is released — through fire, disease, or land-use change.
Sentinel Earth mitigates this with long-term contracts, monitoring, community engagement, and participation in global buffer systems.
What is leakage in carbon markets?
Leakage happens when emission reductions in one area cause increases elsewhere — like stopping logging in one forest but increasing it in another.
Sentinel Earth minimizes leakage risk through landscape-scale planning, credible baselines, and regional policy alignment, ensuring the net impact of our projects is truly positive.
What is double-counting in carbon markets?
Double counting happens when more than one party claims the same emissions reduction — weakening the climate impact.
Sentinel Earth uses traceable registries, legal contracts, and country-level accounting to prevent any form of credit duplication.
What is buffer pooling in carbon projects?
A buffer pool is a set-aside share of credits that acts as insurance for reversals like fires, pests, or regulatory changes — ensuring long-term project integrity.
Sentinel Earth designs conservative buffer mechanisms into each project and contributes to shared buffer pools to maintain market trust.
What is buffer pool capitalization?
Capitalization is the percentage of issued credits set aside into a shared insurance pool — protecting against future credit invalidation.
Sentinel Earth contributes adequate buffers to all relevant projects and publicly discloses buffer rules to build market trust.
What are carbon credit ratings?
Carbon credit ratings assess the quality and risk profile of a credit or project — considering factors like additionality, permanence, and methodology.
Sentinel Earth works with rating agencies and applies internal scoring frameworks to help buyers evaluate and curate high-integrity credit portfolios.
What is vintage mismatch in offsetting?
Vintage mismatch occurs when the emissions being offset happened in a different year than the credit’s issuance. This can affect accounting accuracy.
Sentinel Earth ensures credit vintages match buyers’ reporting needs and provides guidance for minimizing mismatch risks.
What is a vintage in carbon credits?
A vintage is the year the emissions reduction occurred. Buyers often care about vintage for timing alignment and risk management.
Sentinel Earth transparently reports credit vintages and guides buyers on how to align them with disclosure or accounting needs.
What is the carbon removal hierarchy?
The carbon removal hierarchy ranks methods by their durability and integrity — from low-durability (e.g. soil carbon) to high-durability (e.g. direct air capture with storage).
Sentinel Earth helps clients diversify across the hierarchy, ensuring near-term impact and long-term permanence in their carbon portfolios.