The project developer may seek deviations from the registered monitoring plan on a case-by-case basis for the interim period.
One approach is the alternative monitoring approach. The project developer may propose an alternative monitoring approach/arrangements. For example, the project developer may seek deviation for the application of technology based on remote monitoring (through remote sensing, relevant proxy remotely-monitorable data, etc.), which enables the project to meet the monitoring requirements while ensuring completeness and conservativeness of the monitored parameters.
Another alternative is to postpone monitoring. The project developer may seek deviation to suspend the monitoring until the end of the validity period of the interim measures. The project shall be able to complete the monitoring at a later stage or apply credible, conservative assumptions or discount factors to the extent required to ensure that greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions or removals will not be overestimated as a result of the postponement of monitoring. For example, where possible, monitoring can be done retrospectively (where data is recorded by the project but must be downloaded) or through interpolation of the monitoring period. For interpolations, a reasonable discount factor (for example, 20% reduction on metrics) should be applied to account for higher uncertainty.
A third option is a gap in monitoring. The project developer may seek approval for a ‘gap’ period in monitoring until the end of validity period of interim measures and extend the current project crediting period by a period equal to the gap period.
When seeking deviations on account of all three approaches listed above, the project developer shall complete the Deviation Request Form and send to Gold Standard at covid19@goldstandard.org.