In the context of climate change mitigation, double counting is widely used to describe situations where a single greenhouse gas emission reduction or removal is used more than once to demonstrate compliance with their science based targets (SBTs).Double counting becomes prominent where multiple emissions reduction mechanisms overlap over sources or sinks, and when emission reductions are transferred among entities subject to mitigation targets and accounted towards them.Double counting needs to be avoided in order to preserve the integrity of the emissions reduction mechanism and therefore of the mitigation regime under which they operate. Emission reductions being counted more than once implies an overestimation of mitigation results, so failing to prevent double counting could hinder the achievement of internationally agreed mitigation objectives and undermine the credibility of a particular science-base target.
This is not about passing the buck but sharing the problem.