WWF does not recommend purchasing green certificates, but rather compensating for emissions through Gold Standard projects.
WWF recommends that green certificate purchases are replaced by Gold Standard compensation projects at the earliest opportunity, e.g. when the current agreement expires.
The original idea behind green certificates was to ensure that renewable energy sources are used to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of other forms of electricity production. One certificate corresponds to 1,000 kWh of green electricity produced through bioenergy, hydropower, wind power and solar power. The benefit of green certificates over green electricity is that they enable switching to zero CO2 emissions energy without having to amend the electricity agreement. Certificates can be purchased to cover the entire electricity consumption of a building or part thereof. When calculating emissions, 0 gCO2/kWh is applied as the carbon dioxide emission coefficient for the amount of electricity corresponding with purchased green certificates. If the use of green certificates applies to only part of the total consumption of electricity, its effect is taken into account in the calculation of carbon dioxide emissions first in household electricity and then in heating electricity.
