Five things to ask before you ask the price

Comparing certificate quotes by price does not produce a comparison. As the earlier articles set out, the price sits on top of a fuel and a country's scheme.

Five questions come first.

What the supplier answers

Which fuel. The price is rooted in that fuel's extra cost, so until the fuel is fixed the price means nothing. Biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuel and renewable methane carry different prices.

Under which country's scheme. For the same fuel, how much the government incentive fills in changes what the certificate has to carry. That is the difference between 27% in the UK and 83% in Denmark.

What the issuer and verifier answer

Who issued it. Ask for the issuing body by name. A certificate that cannot name one is not yet at the stage where price is the question.

Who verified it. Check whether the verifier appears by name. A reduction with no third-party verification behind it is hard to use in reporting later.

Is it on a registry, and is it retired. This is the device that stops one reduction being sold twice. With no registry it is not a question about the price but about the goods.

And what the cargo owner prepares

Of the five, the supplier answers the first two and the issuer and verifier the last three. What the cargo owner has to prepare sits somewhere else.

Issuing a certificate requires a record of what was reduced and by how much. On which leg, when, which vehicle, how much fuel. That record cannot be made afterwards. Once the run is over, only estimates remain.

The market sets the price. What earns a seat at the table is the record.

This article expands one section of LCS EAC special report 2, How the Price Is Set. The full report works from the SABA press release, DP World's own pages and SBTi Evidence Synthesis Report Part 2 as primary sources, and marks published figures separately from values derived by dividing them.