In view of the challenges of carbon offsetting, the contribution claim model presents an alternative for companies and other organisations that want contribute to tackling the climate crisis beyond their value chain and live up to their responsibility. However, there is still no common understanding of the model and the limited acceptance of it to date stands in the way of broader implementation. In order to create a clearer common understanding of the model and identify its basic elements, the first phase of the project “The contribution claim as an alternative approach to carbon offsetting” was initiated in September 2022 by the Foundation Development and Climate Alliance and carried out by the Wuppertal Institute. The key results of the first project phase are summarised in a concept paper that was published in May 2023.
The contents of the concept paper formed the starting point for the work in the second project phase “The contribution claim model – development of an implementation guide”. The result of this second project phase is this guide to implement the contribution claim model, which was finalised in July 2024. The guide was developed with the aim of contributing to the development of an alternative model for climate financing in the Global South and showing how the contribution claim model could be usefully designed for this purpose. The aim of this project phase was to develop general requirements for organisations that would like to use this model and the mitigation activities supported as part of this approach. The requirements take up existing approaches and consider suggestions that have been fed into the debate. The use of known and recognised approaches is intended to ensure the model’s connectivity and minimise associated transaction costs, while at the same time demonstrating the most ambitious approach possible. A collaborative research and development approach was used to develop the requirements, whereby key stakeholders were involved in individual so called Living Labs and worked on selected issues in a participatory manner.
Here you can find the “Guide to implementing the contribution claim model” and further studies.
