Measurable

Additional

Permanent

Why mechanisms beat promises

Ask how anyone knows a reduction is real and you land on the same three words every credible framework uses: measurable, additional, permanent.

Most instruments answer them with assurances. A certificate answers them with mechanisms — which is the entire point of verification.

The number has to come from measurement, not estimation. Tier 3 primary data is captured at the source with instruments; intensity, vintage, and evidence are attached to the unit of supply before any certificate is issued. If it cannot be measured and evidenced, it does not get issued.

This is the load-bearing test, because the other two depend on it. You cannot demonstrate additionality or permanence for a number nobody actually measured.

The reduction has to be attributable to a specific action and a specific purchase — not something claimed in the abstract or that would have happened anyway. Mass balance and chain of custody tie the performance to a real commodity flow and trace it to the buyer’s goods.