Integrity Council launches follow-up work program to refine permanence requirements

The Integrity Council is launching its second Continuous Improvement Work Program (CIWP) focused on strengthening the durability of carbon credits.

Permanence and durability have emerged as crucial facets of integrity in carbon markets. They ensure that the emissions reductions or removals represented by carbon credits are long-lasting and not easily reversed, thereby underpinning the credibility and value of these credits. Refining approaches to permanence is vital to build investor and buyer confidence at this stage of the market’s development and to address emerging risks as carbon markets continue to evolve.

Current approaches to permanence vary widely across different standards and registries. There is considerable variation in how risk is classified across carbon project types; how removals and reductions are accounted for; how reversal risk assessment and mitigation systems are designed; how long monitoring, reporting and verification periods are required to be; and in the timelines for liability for reversals.

The Integrity Council’s CIWP on Permanence: Monitoring and Compensation builds on the recommendations of its previous work program on permanence. It will focus on the implementation of innovative solutions to improve how reversal risk is assessed and mitigated, and how liability for reversals is distributed and compensated for throughout the lifecycle of a carbon credit.

Robust systems that manage durability risks across all carbon project types are essential. This work program will advance solutions that deliver long-term, quantifiable climate impacts by exploring and evaluating a range of approaches to deliver more standardised and aligned practices across the market.

Alexia Kelly, ICVCM Governing Board member and co-facilitator of the CIWP on Permanence: Monitoring and Compensation, said: “Robust systems to address permanence are the foundation of climate impact and carbon market credibility. The outcomes of last year’s work program set the stage for what the market needs to address next: stress-testing buffer reserve pools, developing more standardised approaches to reversal risk assessment, and further development of the next generation of approaches to managing long-term monitoring and liability for reversals across the market. This will be a pivotal year for the market to develop workable solutions for ensuring and demonstrating durability and mitigation outcomes.”

Recommendations of the previous CIWP on Permanence

The report from the first CIWP on Permanence was published in May 2025. It issued six recommendations for the Integrity Council to consider in future refinements of the Assessment Framework, summarised below:

• Standardise reversal definitions – provide standardised definitions of ‘avoidable’ and ‘unavoidable’ reversals to create consistency across the market.
• Clarify liability for monitoring cessation – if monitoring and verification stop, define a compensation liability equivalent to the project’s historical contributions to a pooled buffer reserve.
• Stress testing for pooled buffer reserves – pilot stress testing for existing programs’ pooled buffer reserves and consider requirements for mandatory stress testing based on the results.
• Provide guidance on project-level risk assessment – create more consistency across programs on how project-level risk assessments are conducted, including on the types of risks addressed and acceptable data sources to use.
• Explore extending the 40-year monitoring and compensation period – explore options for extending the monitoring and compensation period in ways that distribute liability across the market and allow for novel compensation mechanisms.
• Explore the implementation of an innovation sandbox – to be used to pilot innovative monitoring and compensation mechanisms while maintaining integrity and oversight.

Scope of the CIWP on Permanence (Monitoring and Compensation)

The new work program on Permanence: Monitoring and Compensation will build on these recommendations and explore ways to translate them into practice. It will focus on three workstreams, each focusing on a particular recommendation:

• Exploring options for strengthening pooled buffer reserves: Design and pilot a standardised stress test protocol for pooled buffer reserves with interested CCP-Eligible programs, to evaluate robustness across scenarios and decide if and when mandatory stress testing should be adopted.
• Standardised definitions and guidance on project-level risk assessment: Develop a risk categorisation and standardised definitions, including distinguishing between avoidable and unavoidable reversals. This work will be informed by outcomes from external initiatives, as well as recommendations from related CIWPs.
• Novel compensation mechanisms: Explore innovative compensation mechanisms, including the feasibility of a permanence trust, the role of industry-wide pooled buffer reserves, and the potential of insurance products to provide flexible, extended coverage.

The goal of the work program is to develop high-integrity approaches that ensure emission reductions and removals are durable across all activity types. That means combining rigorous monitoring and compensation with the flexibility to accommodate diverse project, geographic, structural and policy contexts.

Gabriel Labbate, ICVCM Expert Panel Co-Chair and co-facilitator of the CIWP on Permanence: Monitoring and Compensation, said: “It is essential to manage reversal risk through clear, program-level rules and methodology-neutral tools that would work for a wide scope of projects and create a single integrity threshold across sectors. This work program is about getting that balance right and developing workable solutions.”

How the CIWP will work

The initial phase of the CIWP will conduct research across the three workstreams. This includes analysing approaches to evaluating buffer reserves and collating existing experience and emerging practice of risk categorisation and compensation for reversals. The work will include targeted workshops and discussions with thought leaders and key ecosystem actors.

A CIWP working group will then be convened to consider the outputs of the three workstreams and produce a set of recommendations to the Integrity Council and the broader market.

The Integrity Council invites applications for participation in the working group via this form. Experts who have responded to a previous call for applications to this CIWP need not reapply.

Experts who have applied to be part of the CIWP working group can expect to hear back from the Integrity Council in Q2 2026.

Applications will remain open until Friday, March 20^th.  

Coordinating the wider ecosystem

There has been rapid innovation in the area of permanence as entities such as the UNFCCC Paris Agreement Crediting Mechanism, the European Union, NGOs, and science and research organisations are exploring aspects of durability, liability and compensation.

The CIWP on Permanence: Monitoring and Compensation will seek to engage and coordinate closely with these initiatives to ensure its work and recommendations align with the best available science and regulatory direction.
For more information on the Integrity Council’s Continuous Improvement Work Programs and our open, multi-stakeholder approach, please visit the dedicated web page.