# How do landfill gas credits count methane oxidation and upstream emissions?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/landfill-gas-credits-oxidation-and-leakage

Oxidation is the share of methane that soil cover turns into CO2 before it escapes. VMR0016 and the Paris Agreement mechanism both use default factors that differ by cover type, and VMR0016 also allows measured values. The mechanism takes a 0.5% leakage deduction for upstream emissions; VMR0016 takes none.

## Oxidation factor

Part of the methane in a landfill is oxidised naturally before it reaches the air, and oxidised methane no longer acts as a methane emission. How much depends on many things, including the type of cover on the landfill, temperature and time. It is hard to measure directly.

## What the two systems use

- VMR0016 and the Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism method both apply default oxidation factors that depend on cover type, drawing on the same underlying study.
- VMR0016 also lets a project use factors informed by methane flux measurements taken before the project starts, which are site-specific but technically hard, costly and uncertain.

## ICVCM's view

Differentiated defaults, and measured fluxes where robust, may reflect current science better than one global default. Uncertainty remains, and methodologies should keep updating as evidence grows.

## Leakage

The Paris Agreement mechanism cuts total emission reductions by 0.5% to cover upstream emissions from making project equipment, transporting it and fossil-based energy. VMR0016 does not make this deduction because it treats those emissions as negligible.

## Additionality

For VMR0016 the Board found the methodology meets its framework only when its benchmark analysis shows carbon revenue raises the relevant financial indicator to or above the benchmark.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible does not issue or verify carbon credits and is not a registry. It gives carbon credit eligibility signals from your own records and keeps those records in order for a verifier. Verified here means rule checks passed against the evidence, not third-party assurance.

- [Landfill gas power credits and the CCP label](https://senseible.earth/answers/landfill-gas-power-credits-ccp-label)
- [Landfill methane recovery under CCTS](https://senseible.earth/answers/bm-wa03-001-landfill-methane-recovery-ccts)
- [Carbon credits](https://senseible.earth/carbon-credits)

Sources: [ICVCM, Observations on category assessment: landfill gas (August 2026)](https://icvcm.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Board-Observations_LFG_VCS_VMR0016_v1.0.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-04.