Carbon Credit Accounting and Verification Standards
ICROA endorses carbon credit accounting and verification standards that meet ICROA's stringent specifications only.
For further information on the criteria that carbon credit accounting and verification standards must meet, please see ICROA's policies for Offset Standard Review Criteria.
ICROA endorses offsets certified under the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, CarbonFix Standard, Climate Action Reserve, Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard and American Carbon Registry. These are widely recognised by experts and policy makers as the most rigorous standards for carbon credits. Their criteria ensure that carbon credits developed under these standards are real, additional, permanent, and verified.
These standards meet criteria to ensure they are; Real, Measurable, Unique, Independently Verified, Permanent, and Additional (principles broadly recognised by policy leaders in carbon management). The standards all have external registries, which allow the offset credits to be tracked, using their serial numbers, from origination to retirement. For credits that use performance based additionality, ICROA members must also ensure that the additionality provisions of the ICROA Code of Best Practice are met.
New offset standards may be proposed at any time by any ICROA member for potential inclusion in the ICROA Code. New standards are accepted into the ICROA Code if they meet the Offset Standard Review Criteria and the ICROA Executive Committee votes to accept the new standard.
ICROA members are bound to use only the afformentioned carbon credit accounting and verification standards for offsetting they are audited annually to ensure the carbon credits they use for offsetting are verified to these standards. (ICROA members may also supply participants of the US EPA Climate Leaders programme with Climate Leaders offsets). For more on these standards, please go to the following links:
| Document Name | Description | File type | Date Added |
|---|---|---|---|
| ICROA standard review criteria | 5th July 2012 |
