Verra VCS carbon credits

Verra, the VCS and VCUs

Verra is a non-profit that runs the Verified Carbon Standard Program along with other standards such as the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards. Under the VCS, a project follows an approved methodology, is validated by an independent auditor before it starts and verified as it runs, and then receives Verified Carbon Units on the Verra Registry. One VCU represents one tonne of CO₂e reduced or removed.

Verra sets the rules and operates the registry. It does not sell credits. Credits are sold by project developers and through brokers and marketplaces like this one.

How to check a project in the Verra Registry

Every VCS project page here shows the Verra project ID, for example VCS2649. Search for it on the Verra Registry to see the project description, the methodology, validation and verification reports, VCU issuances by vintage and the retirement records.

• Check the project is registered, not only listed or under development.
• Match the vintage you are offered to an actual issuance on the registry.
• Read the most recent verification report for how reductions were measured and any issues raised by the auditor.
• After purchase, find the retirement with your name as beneficiary and the VCU serial numbers.

Methodology, vintage and risk

The methodology defines what counts as a reduction and how it is measured. The vintage is the year the reduction happened; older vintages are usually cheaper and there is nothing wrong with them as long as the credit is retired properly. Risk differs by project type: forest protection depends on a credible baseline and controlling leakage, land-based removals face reversal risk, which the VCS covers with a pooled buffer of credits, and energy projects depend on showing the project would not have happened anyway.

Every VCS project must clear ten threshold principles, including an approved methodology, a defined boundary, accounting for leakage, demonstrated additionality and a rigorous monitoring plan. Carbon Footprint’s guide to VCS carbon credits on carbonfootprint.com explains each principle in detail.

The VCS covers a very wide range of methodologies, from renewable energy and landfill gas to REDD forest protection, afforestation, biochar and the weatherisation of buildings. That breadth is why a project-level assessment matters as much as the standard itself.

Retirement and your certificate

A VCU only counts against your footprint once it is retired on the Verra Registry. When you pay, we retire the VCUs in your name, or your organisation’s name, and issue your certificate immediately. Retirements are public and permanent. Carbon Footprint Ltd is audited annually against the Quality Assurance Standard to confirm that every credit sold is retired.

Certification versus our CRISP rating

The Carbon Marketplace sources certified credits from projects. When you purchase through our marketplace, we retire the credits on the registry in your name, or your organisation’s name, and issue your certificate straight away. The certification tells you the project meets the standard’s rules. Our separate CRISP rating tells you how strong the evidence is for that particular project.

How to read the CRISP rating

CRISP, the Carbon Ratings Insight Platform, reviews each project’s design document, verification and monitoring reports, scores five criteria out of 5 with a written justification for each, and averages them into the overall rating you see on every project card. More than 1,800 projects are rated and the ratings are free to read.

• Additionality: would the reductions have happened anyway? CRISP looks for regulatory surplus, financial need for the credit revenue, activities that are not common practice, and a credible baseline.
• Permanence: how long the benefit lasts and how reversal risk is managed, through monitoring, buffer pools or insurance and long-term project commitments.
• Quantification: whether the reductions are measured with robust methods, a clear baseline, systematic monitoring, independent verification and transparent reporting.
• Leakage: whether emissions simply shift outside the project boundary, and whether that is monitored and deducted from the credits.
• ICVCM CCP status: 1 if the methodology has not been submitted or failed assessment, 3 if submitted and pending, 5 if approved under the Core Carbon Principles.