Project-Level GHG Accounting Certification
From project boundary design to verified carbon credit issuance, aligned with the GHG Protocol Project Standard and ISO 14064-2:2019.
From Concept to Verified Carbon Credit
On completion, you will be able to design, quantify, document, and support the verification of GHG project activities to the standard required by DOEs, registries, and institutional buyers.
Eight Modules, One Complete Lifecycle
The curriculum follows the GHG project accounting lifecycle from project conception through credit retirement, building expertise systematically across all ten stages of the project cycle.
Establishes the conceptual architecture of GHG project accounting: what constitutes a GHG project under international standards, how it differs from entity-level corporate accounting, and why the distinction matters for practitioners. Introduces the GWP framework under IPCC AR6 and the additionality test that separates legitimate carbon credits from "hot air." A structured case study — the Summerland Swine Waste Biogas Project — is carried through the entire course as a practical anchor. Module outcome: Define a GHG project, navigate the applicable standards framework, apply GWP conversion factors, and describe the full project accounting lifecycle.
Project boundaries are the structural foundation of every GHG project: an incorrectly defined boundary can invalidate a project design document or cause systematic miscounting of emission reductions. Covers how to define, justify, and document geographic, temporal, and operational boundaries, and how to identify and categorise GHG sources, sinks, and reservoirs across sectors. Module outcome: Design, document, and justify technically defensible project boundaries across major sectors, applying appropriate significance thresholds.
The baseline scenario is the single most consequential technical decision in any GHG project: it determines the counterfactual against which emission reductions are measured. Covers all three baseline approaches under GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-2, with worked examples across renewable energy, forestry, industrial, and agricultural projects, plus grid emission factor methodology and dynamic baseline updating. Module outcome: Select and apply all three baseline approaches and document baseline decisions to a standard that withstands independent verification.
Additionality is the most contested concept in the global carbon market, and the skill most often deficient in challenged projects. Covers the UNFCCC CDM additionality tool (Steps 1–4), the Gold Standard and Verra approaches, investment analysis, barrier analysis, and common-practice assessment, alongside recent additionality controversies and the corrective methodological responses from Verra, Gold Standard, and ICVCM. Module outcome: Apply the UNFCCC CDM additionality tool and programme-specific approaches, and construct arguments that meet DOE verification scrutiny.
The most technically intensive module: the core GHG accounting equation, emission factor selection, uncertainty analysis, and quantification approaches across major project types. Includes IPCC Tier 1, 2, and 3 approaches, EFDB navigation, conservativeness adjustments, and a complete worked credit calculation from raw activity data to verified tonnes CO2e. Module outcome: Perform complete GHG project credit calculations and apply conservativeness adjustments that meet ISO 14064-2 and programme requirements.
Leakage — emissions that increase outside a project boundary as a result of the project activity — is an underappreciated source of credit-quality failure. Systematically addresses identification, attribution, and quantification across project types, with particular depth on REDD+ displacement leakage, agricultural supply-chain leakage, and market leakage in energy projects. Module outcome: Identify relevant leakage pathways for a given project type, select quantification methods, and incorporate deductions into net credit calculations.
A monitoring plan is both an operational instruction manual and a legal commitment: it defines exactly how the emission reductions claimed in a credit are measured and documented. Covers ISO 14064-2 compliant monitoring plan development, data management system design, QA/QC procedures, and monitoring report preparation, including how monitoring failures have led to verification rejections and credit reversals. Module outcome: Develop a complete ISO 14064-2 compliant monitoring plan and a QA/QC system that supports third-party verification.
Brings the accounting cycle to completion: preparing for third-party verification through to the issuance, sale, and retirement of verified carbon credits. Covers how DOEs conduct validation and verification under ISO 14064-3, what verification findings mean and how to respond, and how credits are issued, tracked, and retired across major programme registries, closing with voluntary carbon market pricing dynamics and buyer requirements. Module outcome: Prepare a project for third-party verification and navigate the registry system for credit issuance, transfer, and retirement.
A Certificate That Validates Technical Competence
The Project-Level GHG Accounting Certificate is digitally verifiable and shareable to LinkedIn and institutional CVs, positioning you within a global network of practitioners working across the carbon market value chain.
Questions Practitioners Ask Before Enrolling
Answers to the questions most often raised about scope, format, and standards alignment.
Does this course cover corporate GHG inventories, or only project-level accounting?
The course is scoped entirely to project-level accounting under the GHG Protocol Project Standard and ISO 14064-2. Module 1 draws the boundary between project-level and entity-level (corporate) accounting explicitly, but the remaining seven modules do not cover corporate Scope 1, 2, and 3 inventory work.
Do I need a background in carbon markets to enrol?
No prior carbon market experience is required. Module 1 builds the foundational concepts from first principles, and the Swine Waste Biogas case study is introduced early and carried through the course so every technical concept is grounded in a single, consistent project example.
Which registries and programmes does the course reference?
Module 8 covers registry operations across Verra, Gold Standard, the American Carbon Registry, the Climate Action Reserve, and the UNFCCC, including credit issuance, transfer, and retirement procedures specific to each.
How is additionality actually assessed, and why does Module 4 take a full module to cover it?
Additionality is assessed through defined tools, primarily the UNFCCC CDM additionality tool alongside investment analysis, barrier analysis, and common-practice assessment. It receives a dedicated module because it is the most frequently challenged element of project design documents in third-party verification.
Is the certificate recognised by verification bodies or registries?
The certificate confirms completion of the curriculum and the associated knowledge assessments; it is not an accreditation issued by a DOE, standards body, or registry. It is designed to demonstrate practitioner-level technical competency to employers and clients.
What access do I get after completing the course?
Enrolment includes lifetime access to the certificate record and twelve months of access to the course content itself, so the material remains available for reference during active project work.
Enrol in the Certification
Choose to pay in full or split the enrolment fee across two instalments. Both options include identical course access.
