Addressing Leakage in a Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Offsets Program for Forestry and Agriculture

Leakage is the phenomenon through which efforts to reduce emissions in one place simply shift emissions to another location or sector where they remain uncontrolled or uncounted. It occurs "whenever the spatial scale of the intervention is inferior to the full scale of the targeted problem." The potential for leakage arises when rules, regulations, and incentives for action affect only part of the potential pool of participants or emissions sources.