Leading the way to high integrity in the Voluntary Carbon Market
Our Core Carbon Principles help identify high-integrity carbon credits and channel finance to climate solutions that are good for people and planet.
About the Integrity Council
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) is multi-stakeholder led independent governance body. It establishes and maintains the highest standards of ethics, sustainability, and transparency for the global voluntary carbon market.
We enable a high-integrity voluntary carbon market that contributes to the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by setting and enforcing a global benchmark for high-quality carbon credits – the Core Carbon Principles.
The Core Carbon Principles
A rulebook for high integrity
The Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) establish a global benchmark for high-integrity carbon credits that set rigorous thresholds on disclosure and sustainable development and unlock urgently needed finance.
We are now assessing carbon-crediting programs (Programs) and Categories of carbon credits for adherence to the CCP criteria. When Programs start to issue CCP-labelled credits, buyers of carbon credits will find it easier to ensure they are funding projects that make a genuine impact.
“As we continue to collaborate and build a regulatory-like process we look forward to seeing a high-integrity carbon market scaling up and reaching its huge potential as an impactful climate solution.”
Annette L. Nazareth
Chair, The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market
“VCMI and ICVCM develop the principles and standards for a market that offers end-to-end integrity.”
Charlotte Vere
Baroness Vere of Norbiton, Member of the House of Lords of the UK
“I’ve been hearing about the work of VCMI and ICVCM and was really pleased with what I heard.”
John Kerry
Former Secretary of State, United States Government
Our vision
Build integrity and scale will follow: we aim to create a high-integrity voluntary carbon market that accelerates a just transition to 1.5°C.
Our mission
We set a definitive global threshold for the voluntary carbon market so that high-quality carbon credits can efficiently unlock private finance to reduce and remove emissions.
The world urgently needs a high-integrity voluntary carbon market
To limit global temperature rise, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline by 43% by 2030. Companies and other non-state actors have a critical role to play in reducing and removing global emissions to ensure we achieve net-zero no later than 2050.
But 80% of the world’s energy supply still comes from fossil fuels, meaning there is an urgent need for businesses to decarbonise rapidly. Companies must prioritise cuts to their own emissions through reducing their reliance on fossil fuels, while CCP-labelled carbon credits allow them to take responsibility for the emissions they can’t yet cut.
A high-integrity voluntary carbon market is a key complementary tool with the potential to remove 2.6 billion tonnes of emissions by 2030 — nearly 12% of the reduction we need by 2030 to stay on course for 1.5°C — and help finance a just transition to net zero.
