Commonly Asked Questions
- What is Carbon Project Manager North America?
- How can CPM NA help my organization?
- Who are its primary users?
- How do users access the system?
- How and where is data collected?
- Who is responsible for data entry and management?
- How frequently does the team update the data?
- How do you aggregate the price ranges?
- Who has access to enter or update information in the database?
- What do the different project “Stages” mean?
- What do the different project “Types” mean?
- What procedures ensure that the data system consistently captures all data occurrences (records, observations) and all data elements?
- Is there written documentation of these procedures?
- Are any tests (e.g., spot checks, systematic reviews, exception reports) conducted to assure that the data were entered accurately?
- Are there any limitations of the data?
- Are there any purposes for which the data should not be used?
- What steps have others taken to improve the data in order to conduct an analysis?
- Why use Carbon Project Manager to track trends in the marketplace over previously published reports?
What is Carbon Project Manager North America?
Carbon Project Manager North America (CPM NA) is the premier information resource for North American voluntary and compliance offset markets. Alongside up-to-the-minute news, in-depth analysis, and pricing, CPM NA’s searchable database includes over 500 offset projects and 1,000 contacts, providing you with a unique, indispensible tool to make business decisions in the North American carbon market.
How can CPM NA help my organization?
With this tool, your organization can:
- Query the world’s largest database of North America carbon offsets by:
- Project Developer or by other Party
- Project Stage
- State or Country
- Offset Project Type
- Standard or Protocol
- Identify market trends by using the aggregated information on our Statistics subtab
- Locate buyers, sellers, and partners by searching on the Market Player subtab
- Understand North American offset pricing by checking our monthly updated price ranges for different types of offsets
- Utilize contact information to expand client base, develop partnerships, evaluate competition, make strategic hires, find conference speakers, etc.
- Read the latest analysis on the offset markets, so that pricing, news, and developments are put into the context of how it affects players in this market
- Financial firms (Traders, Investment Banks, etc)
- Project Developers, Aggregators, and Verifiers
- Government and Non Governmental Organizations
- Academia
- Utility and Industrial Companies
How do users access the system?
Data is accessible via the internet through the website, with an approved user name and password. (http://www.pointcarbon.com/trading/cpmna/)
How and where is data collected?
The data is collected through a variety of public, semi-private (membership based), and confidential sources that includes, but is not limited to, market reports, public offset registries, national and regional CO2 reduction partnerships, extensive phone interviews, non-disclosure agreements (data is then filtered in some fashion to protect aspects of the data and/or it remains confidential external to Point Carbon), client information exchanges, academic publications, etc.
Who is responsible for data entry and management?
A program manager and a team of carbon offset specialists in North America and Kiev manage the database. In addition, the product is supported by a technical team in Kiev, Ukraine as well.
How frequently does the team update the data?
Data is updated on an “ongoing” basis, focusing on the following trigger events:
- When projects shift from project development to commercialization
- Commercialization to production emission reductions
- Emission reductions produced to emission reductions verified
- Emissions reductions verified to certified
- Project termination
- Credit retirement
How do you aggregate the price ranges?
The price ranges are aggregated from transaction information provided by buyers, sellers, traders, and brokers in the North American carbon market. The transactions are reported on a monthly basis, and focus on offsets in the United States and Canada. These prices reflect a secondary market value, meaning that the offsets have been fully certified and/or verified. With regards to transactions with bid-ask spreads, Point Carbon utilizes a mid-market price. Point Carbon includes offset prices which have multiple data sources.
Who has access to enter or update information in the database?
Data entry access via internet is available only by permission of the program manager and changes to data are tracked in the database.
What do the different project “Stages” mean?
In order to best approximate the Clean Development Mechanism process, Point Carbon has slotted each of the projects into a particular stage.
- Research and Development: The project is in an early stage, and the technology is still unproven at this time. For example, early stage CCS or Wave Energy projects may qualify for this.
- Demonstration and Commercialization: The project has a proven technology, but it still is going through the process of siting, permitting, licensing, financing, and/or construction. The project is not online yet, but it is in the process of coming online. An example of this would be an initial RFP for construction of methane capture at a landfill gas project.
- Developed (Reducing Emissions): The project is online, but it has not been able to create carbon credits, and the developers are likely attempting to monetize in carbon offsets at this time. For example, a demand side energy efficiency project may be “reducing emissions” but it may not have been able to create carbon credits yet.
- Emissions Produced: The project is currently online and reducing emissions, and awaits verification or will not seek verification from a 3rd party source.
- Emissions Verified: The project has received verification from a 3rd party source that it is reducing emissions.
- Emissions Certified: The project has been certified by a standard and/or market system. For example, once it has received CCAR or CCX certification, or became eligible for the Alberta market, the project would receive this stage designation.
- Project termination: The project has been terminated, and is not creating carbon offsets.
- Credit retirement: The credits from this project have been retired, and it no longer is generating offsets.
What do the different project “Types” mean?
The database of projects is broken up into 12 types:
- Agricultural Waste: This includes any waste from Agricultural sites. Primarily this type concerns projects which include an anaerobic digestor for animal waste, but it can also include wastewater treatment as well.
- Biosequestration: This includes any project which looks to sequester carbon through biological means (aside from forestry or soil sequestration projects). In practice, this predominately concerns algae-related projects.
- Energy Efficiency: This includes both demand side energy efficiency as well as energy efficiency in power generation and industrial facilities.
- Forestry: This includes any project which looks to sequester carbon through the planting or conservation of woody plants and trees. Reforestation, afforestation, conservation, forest management, and urban forestry are subtypes of forestry.
- Fuel Switching: This includes projects which look to change their fuel source to reduce their net CO2 emissions. Industrial and power generation facilities as part of this type will typically switch in biomass, biofuels, or even natural gas as a way of reducing their carbon footprint.
- Fugitive Emissions/CMM: This includes projects which reduce the amount of greenhouse gases which escape to the air as part of their business. This typically relates to methane and natural gas, particularly coal mine methane (CMM) wherein methane from coal mines or beds is captured or flared.
- Industrial Processes: These include reduction of emissions from projects which are releasing high levels of industrial greenhouse gases (HFCs, SF6, PFCs, N2O, etc).
- Landfill Gas: This includes methane capture at landfill sites.
- Renewable Energy: This includes the following project subtypes: fuel cells, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, solar, tidal, wave and wind energy.
- Soil Sequestration: This includes no-till or grass projects, which look to sequester carbon dioxide and methane in the ground by changing farming or other kinds of behavior.
What procedures ensure that the data system consistently captures all data occurrences (records, observations) and all data elements?
An application level of the database helps to consistently capture all data. It checks incoming data from user for syntax (e.g. valid emails, no duplicate projects, lower vs. higher margins, non-null entries, positive numbers for volumes etc.). A second layer at the database level checks for foreign keys, not-null constraints, checks, and unique columns. A third layer is a test suite that runs on regular basis and detects workflow errors. This helps to generate reports that analysts will check manually (like registered reductions on the project that is on the demonstration stage, verifier report for project on the ER’s produced stage, etc.)
Is there written documentation of these procedures?
Written documentation of the procedures is available via scripts and schema but this process is highly confidential and only available via written request and granted only for very specific instances.
Are any tests (e.g., spot checks, systematic reviews, exception reports) conducted to assure that the data were entered accurately?
The true test of the data is that Point Carbon does not make blind assumptions – all data stems from public, confidential, or semi-confidential sources and sources are cited. Source information is located in the project summary, URL, or available in downloadable PDF. Contact information is also provided, so the client can verify the accuracy of the information. Analysts at Point Carbon review the data once when entered, once again and/or twice during a Quality Assurance (Q&A) process to make sure it is current, updated and or accurate. Due the rapidly changing marketplace, Point Carbon cannot guarantee the data is up-to-date but attempts to capture changing shifts between major stages of the project. However, these shifts are only captured when marketplayers disclose those details, which does not always happen. We encourage clients to inform us when data changes, is not current or is inaccurate and welcome all comments and suggestions via CPMNAContact@pointcarbon.com. Analysts will address the issues as they arise. Please note that IT programmers work in Kiev, may not be able to accommodate the problem until the following business day – due to the six hour to nine hour time difference between North America and the Ukraine.
Are there any limitations of the data?
By nature of the current unregulated marketplace, it is impossible to assume that we have captured all the data in the marketplace. However, CPM NA is still the world’s best information source for North American carbon offsets.
Are there any purposes for which the data should not be used?
When clients purchase a subscription, they acknowledge that Point Carbon owns all rights titles and interests in Carbon Project Manager North America "CPM NA", including, without limitation, the contents and/or results contained in or derived from the CPM NA and all intellectual property and proprietary rights related to CPM NA or contained therein.
Furthermore the client acknowledges that it acquires no rights in CPM NA except for the right to use CPM NA as expressly agreed upon (to be determined), and agrees never to contest any of the rights of Point Carbon in and to CPM NA.
The client will not, without the prior written consent of Point Carbon, reproduce, summarize, incorporate into a report or other document, publish or otherwise distribute, in any form or by any means, whether internally or externally, any data, information, analysis, calculations, models, forecasts and systems contained in or derived from CPM NA to persons who have not paid for CPM NA.
The client will not, without the prior written consent of Point Carbon, redistribute CPM NA or any part thereof.
Lastly, the client would be prohibited from using or allowing the use of, CPM NA or any part thereof or in any way communicating the contents and/or results contained in or derived from CPM NA as part of a competing service or product.
What steps have others taken to improve the data in order to conduct an analysis?
When appropriate Point Carbon estimates based on simple calculations and/or imputation. Often Point Carbon will use numbers based on projects of similar size. For example,
1) Point Carbon, when tracking transactions, will have one or two aspects of the data set (e.g. Total volume and price per credit) but not all aspects (annual volume, length of the project). In this case we use simple calculations to estimate, volume, and/or price per ton.
2) When tracking project volume Point Carbon will assess herd units, capacity, acreage and other various values that provide a general ball park for an estimate. In an effort to not overestimate the size of the market, it should be noted that Point Carbon relies on minimal not maximum estimates.
Why use Carbon Project Manager to track trends in the marketplace over previously published reports?
Several attempts have been made to model offset supply using theoretical methods using government inventories of voluntary emission reductions using agricultural and industrial data. This perspective is undoubtedly useful but not necessarily realistic. Several barriers prevent projects from developing or delivering offset credits for a variety of reasons – issues with up-front investment or on-going financing, price signals, registration approval, transaction costs, bureaucracy of detailed monitoring and verification, technology failure, socio-politics, internal and external competition in the market, etc. Accommodating for this reality, offset supply is presented here based on real projects in various stages of the pipeline and tracked on an ongoing basis. The rapidly evolving marketplace comprises the ability to account for every project. A conservative estimate calculated this way and tracked in real time, however, is an effective measure for tracking key trends in market activity, project performance, VERs delivered and price discovery.