3.3.2.10 Relation of ARD Activities to Activities under Article 3.4 and Projects
under Article 6
Article 3.3 states that stock changes from ARD activities shall be used to
meet commitments. If the COP accepts further activities under Article 3.4, how
should these activities be treated if they occur on the same land for which
stock changes are already counted under Article 3.3? There are three options:
- The land is no longer considered under Article 3.3 but included exclusively
under Article 3.4: This option might violate Article 3.3, which stipulates
that all stock changes resulting from ARD activities "shall" be reported.
There is a possibility, however, that reporting stock changes from ARD activities
under Article 3.4 would be regarded as sufficient to satisfy the "shall" requirement
of Article 3.3.
- The land is considered under Article 3.3, and stock changes from the Article
3.4 activity are counted under Article 3.3 as well: This option would avoid
the risk of possible double-counting. It eliminates the need to determine
whether an Article 3.4 activity has occurred on ARD land.
- Stock changes from an ARD activity are counted under Article 3.3, and stock
changes on the same piece of land from an Article 3.4 activity are counted
under Article 3.4: This option poses a danger of double-counting, and separation
of stock changes according to cause will be difficult.
Similarly, there might be lands that are already under the realm of Article
3.4 on which a subsequent ARD activity takes place. There are three options
in this case as well:
- The land is no longer considered under Article 3.4 but counted under Article
3.3.
- The land continues to be considered under Article 3.4, so stock changes
from the ARD activity are accounted under Article 3.4: This option would exclude
some ARD activities from being counted under Article 3.3, however-which would
be inconsistent with the wording of Article 3.3.
- Stock changes from an Article 3.4 activity are counted under Article 3.4,
and stock changes on the same piece of land from an ARD activity are counted
under Article 3.3.
Another issue involves how ARD activities relate to projects undertaken under
Article 6. This issue is discussed separately for land-based and activity-based
approaches:
- Land-based approach. All stock changes on a unit of land are accounted
once the land undergoes an ARD activity. If the same activity also falls under
Article 6, then-according to Articles 3.10 and 3.11-only the "additional"
carbon credits [Article 6.1(b)] can be transferred to another country. In
other words, assigned amounts are deducted from the host country's budget
and added to the investor country's budget. For example, if the stock change
from an ARD activity is 2 t C ha-1 yr-1, but only 1.5 t C of that amount are
"additional" (the rest coming from a longer term increase in soil carbon),
the 2 t C are added to the host country's assigned amount via Article 3.3,
and 1.5 t C are deducted via Article 3.11. The net gain for the host country,
after the transaction, would be 0.5 t C.
- Activity-based approach. The stock changes that result from the ARD
activity are accounted under Article 3.3. This approach seems compatible with
the additionality requirement under Article 6. In the foregoing example, the
credit under Article 3.3 would be 1.5 t C, all of which would be transferred
via Article 3.11
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