CNaught maintains a very high quality standard for all projects in the portfolios we manage. To ensure that a project meets this standard, we perform due diligence that’s backed up by third-party ratings agencies’ own due diligence.

Additionality:

This project has very high additionality, meaning that this project activity is very unlikely to have occurred in the absence of carbon funding. The Titas Gas Pipeline is over 12,000 km long and has been severely under-resourced since it was built in the 1960s. This has led to serious leakage issues resulting in explosions and fatalities. Carbon funding is providing the project with the resources needed to improve management of this pipeline. BeZero cited this project as highly additional and lauded its thorough financial accounting documentation, demonstrating that the company did not have the resources to improve their pipeline management without carbon funding. We also found that this project conservatively excludes activities required for local regulatory compliance from their carbon accounting, ensuring that only truly additional emissions reductions are credited.

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Over-Crediting:

This project has a very low risk of over-crediting as it employs a rigorous and conservative approach to emissions accounting. The project measures emissions from leaks both before and after repairs with a Hi Flow Sampler, a highly accurate measurement tool, rather than relying on estimates. This measurement-based methodology ensures credible quantification of emission reductions, while likely understating the project's climate impact rather than overstating.

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Durability:

This project activity is highly durable as it has substantially enhanced the quality of equipment repair and maintenance, demonstrating strong potential for lasting emission reductions. BeZero rates this project highly, in part because these emissions reductions cannot be reversed. While we agree with this, we also note that many components of the pipeline need complete replacement, rather than repair, and that to fully ensure permanence of the project activity, the project developer needs to acquire additional funding. The developer has been proactively applying for grants and loans to fund these necessary infrastructure improvements, which we believe will help support the long term durability of the project’s climate benefits.

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Double-Counting:

The project credits have a very low risk of being double counted. This project was initially registered and implemented under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) before being transferred to Verra. We have carefully reviewed all of the credit issuances under both CDM and Verra to ensure that previously issued credits are not being counted under both mechanisms. We confirmed that the project was very diligent in reporting all credit issuances and that there is no risk of double-counting.