Guarantees of Origin and Double Counting

Green electricity certificates within the European Union have an inherent double counting problem, which has been a recurring topic here.

For a comprehensive overview, check this article:

• The Trouble with European Green Electricity Certificates (Dec 15 2023)

I also made a video:

• How Iceland and Norway sell their Green Electricity twice (YouTube, May 27 2024)

If you speak German, you may also want to check:

• Ökostrom darf wieder zweimal verkauft werden (Golem.de, Dec 24 2023)

Latest developments

• Norway makes double counting official: "The government has long worked to ensure that the guarantee of origin scheme for electricity does not prevent Norwegian business from reporting that the electricity they use is renewable." (Regjeringen.no, Mar 20 2025)
• Market-based Instruments are greenwashing — says the European Commission: "Similarly, greenwashing can occur through carbon accounting practices, such as energy-intensive metals production benefiting from market-based instruments to appear low-carbon while still relying on high-emission energy sources" A European Steel and Metals Action Plan (Mar 19 2025, European Commission)

More

Older articles about Guarantees of Origin:

• How Iceland sold the same Green Electricity twice (May 11 2023)
• Double Counting and other problems with Green Electricity Certificates (Jun 05 2023)

During my investigations, I received a number of documents through freedom of information laws and other means that I made public here:

• Guarantees of Origin Document Archive

Articles in other publications (all German):

• Ökostromzertifikate aus Norwegen: Was taugen Ökostromtarife noch? (Zeit Online, Aug 02 2023)
• Ökostrom-Zertifikatsexport aus Island wieder erlaubt (Golem.de, Jun 02 2023)
• Islands Ökostromzertifikate werden nicht mehr anerkannt (Golem.de, May 10 2023)