Most carbon diligence is a questionnaire the seller fills in about themselves. Here is what to check instead — the eleven questions that actually separate a defensible credit from an expensive certificate.
A typical diligence pack asks the developer to describe their own methodology, attest to their own additionality, and supply their own verification report. Every input originates with the party being assessed. The process feels rigorous and tests almost nothing.
Useful diligence works differently. It asks for artefacts that exist independently of the seller's narrative, and it treats anything unavailable as a finding rather than an inconvenience.
Take these to any seller, including us. A good counterparty will answer all of them without a call.
1. Which physical instrument produced this figure, and when was it last calibrated?
2. Can I see the raw readings, not a summary?
3. What is the uncertainty range, and how was it derived?
A seller who can only supply a modelled estimate is selling a projection. That may still be worth buying — but price it as one.
4. Who verified this, and how were they assigned to the project?
5. Who pays the verifier's fee?
6. Has this verifier audited this developer before, and how often?
If the developer selects and pays their own auditor, treat the verification as a vendor document rather than an independent opinion.
7. What is the stated storage duration, and what physical mechanism guarantees it?
8. What happens if a reversal occurs — who bears the loss?
9. Is there a buffer pool, how is it sized, and is its balance published?
"Permanent" applied to a biological pathway is a red flag. Honest sellers give you a number and a risk mechanism.
10. Is this credit issued on any other registry, and what contractually prevents that?
11. Does the host country count this toward its own NDC?
Double-counting is rarely fraud; it is usually two parties with a reasonable claim and no coordination between registries. Ask anyway.
Test us
Every answer for every project on CarbTrust is already public. If any of the eleven cannot be answered from the record, tell us — that is a bug on our side.