Against the backdrop of rapidly advancing climate change and rising global temperatures, more and more companies are setting their own climate targets – and intend to supplement their internal decarbonisation measures by supporting climate change mitigation outside their own value chains. In the past, many organisations used CO2 offsetting for this purpose: they compensated for unavoided emissions with carbon credits from the voluntary carbon market. This has often been used as a basis for carbon neutrality claims with regard to companies as well as their products or services. However, scandals about the poor quality of these credits, cases of greenwashing and misleading statements have called this approach into question. The contribution claim model offers an alternative beyond carbon offsetting for companies that want to fulfil their responsibility for more climate action.
The project "The Contribution Claim Model – Development of an Implementation Guide" picks up on this dynamic: Together with key stakeholders from politics, business and civil society, researchers from the Wuppertal Institute are developing a guide on how companies of all sizes can make a contribution claim. The first part of the guide covers the requirements for organisations wishing to use the contribution claim model: Overarching requirements, specifications for balancing greenhouse gas emissions, for setting targets and implementing internal climate change mitigation measures, for supporting climate action outside the organisations’ own value chains as well as for reporting and communication. The second part describes the requirements for climate protection measures outside the organisations’ value chains: specifications on governance and implementation as well as meta-requirements. These are applied to three different financing options: purchasing and surrendering carbon credits, supporting climate funds and directly financing own projects. The guide is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the contribution claim model and to encourage its wider application.