Is it leakage if my replaced boiler or motor is sold and used elsewhere?

Usually yes. If the boiler or motor you replaced keeps running somewhere else, its emissions have moved rather than stopped, so carbon methods treat it as leakage. CDM small-scale methods say leakage must be considered when replaced equipment goes to another activity, which is why most projects scrap the old unit with evidence.

Why reuse counts against you

An efficiency or fuel switch credit pays for emissions that no longer happen. If your inefficient boiler is sold to another unit and fired there, the emissions you claimed to avoid partly continue, outside your project boundary. That shift is leakage. Verra's VCS Standard requires leakage to be assessed and deducted. CDM small-scale Type II methods for efficiency and fuel switching, such as AMS-II.C and AMS-II.D, say leakage is to be considered when equipment is transferred to or from another activity, and some methods require independent monitoring that replaced equipment was scrapped.

What counts as taking it out of use

• Scrapped and destroyed: cut up and sold as metal scrap. This is not leakage.
• Kept on site as standby, sealed and logged, with no running hours. Whether this is accepted depends on the method version; where it is, expect the verifier to check meters and fuel records.
• Sold or transferred as working equipment to another factory: leakage that has to be assessed and deducted, which needs data from a site you do not control.
• Moved to another line in your own plant: it stays inside your boundary only if that line is in the project; otherwise treat it as leakage.

How remaining lifetime affects the claim

CDM Methodological Tool 10 sets how to estimate the remaining lifetime of the equipment you replace. Reductions are credited against the old equipment only until it would have reached the end of its life anyway. Equipment near the end of its life gives a short crediting window, which is one more reason to document its age, rating and condition before removal.

Evidence to keep for the verifier

1. Make, model, serial number and nameplate rating of each replaced unit, with photos.
2. A scrap sale invoice or scrap dealer certificate naming the equipment, and a weighbridge slip.
3. Photos of the unit being cut or dismantled, dated.
4. The purchase invoice and commissioning report of the new equipment.
5. A written statement from your side that no replaced unit was sold for reuse.

What Senseible does here

Senseible shows carbon credit eligibility signals and keeps the purchase and scrap invoices you upload as evidence. It does not calculate leakage deductions or decide methodology compliance; that sits with the project developer, the verifier and the registry.

• Energy efficiency credits for factories
• Who owns credits from equipment?
• Additionality in carbon credits
• Carbon credits

Sources: CDM Methodological Tool 10, remaining lifetime of equipment, and small-scale methodologies AMS-II.C and AMS-II.D (UNFCCC), Verra VCS Standard, leakage requirements

Last reviewed 2026-10-17. CDM methods are being carried into the Article 6.4 mechanism; check the version of the methodology your project registers under.