Among the major changes, under the new CCX rules, is that the project start date has been revised from Jan 1, 1999 to Jan 1, 2003. This now means that projects in India which have been commissioned between 1999-2002 cannot enter the carbon market, either VCS, CDM or CCX (now). While the VCS allows projects commissioned into the program with start dates after Jan 1, 2002, VCS validations needed to have been contracted before 19 November 2008 and validations completed by 19 November 2009. Hence, owners (with projects between 1999-2002) who have only recently heard about carbon offsets and credits, and who have not already applied to the CCX or VCS program, stand to lose out on carbon credits and hence effectively, there is no carbon market for such projects.

CCX has now redrafted both Chapter 8 (Commercial Forestry) and Chapter 9 (Offsets) of the CCX Rulebook and has annaounced applicable baseline or business as usual scenarios for each protocol which developers need to adhere to effective immediately.

The most notable change is the common practice principle: According to the GHG Protocol for Project Accounting, “Common practice refers to the predominant technologies or practices in a given market, as determined by the degree to which those technologies or practices have penetrated the market (defined by a specified geographic area).

For example, CCX reviewed information regarding the prevalence of biogas digesters in rural India and found that in the absence of biogas use as a cooking fuel, conventional fossil fuel in the form of LPG or kerosene, and non renewable biomass fuel combustion using inefficient wood stoves, is the norm. Project Proponents wishing to apply this Protocol to Projects outside of India must present the CCX Offset Committee with sufficient information that can be used to establish strict regulatory and beyond business as usual criteria. Given the common practice definition above, building and operating biogas digester plants for the purpose of generating cooking gas for households in India is clearly not common practice. Therefore, a Project that meets the regulatory criteria above and installs a biogas plant can be considered beyond business as usual.

Developers using biomass renewable energy systems in India will similarly need to showcase not common practice in the region of activity. Projects currently registered at CCX may continue to use the protocol version under which they were approved through the duration of their crediting period.

CCX weighs a variety of factors related to each potential project type such that eligibility would be based on whether or not a particular category of actions provides the following characteristics:

• Rare (e.g. best-in-class actions)
• Voluntary (e.g. not legally required)
• Recent
• Verifiable
• Properly addresses permanence
• Avoids the creation of perverse incentives that would result in increases in GHG emissions on or off the project site
• Conservative

CCX rules will now ensure that all of the identified principles outlined in ISO 14064-2 Specification with guidance at the project level for quantification, monitoring, and reporting of Greenhouse Gas emission reductions or removal enhancements are adopted for projects to ensure that offsets are issued based upon industry accepted standards.