Carbon credits come from many programmes, each with its own rules. The CCP label is an attempt to give buyers one common quality bar across them. This guide explains what the label means, how a credit earns it, which programmes and methodologies have been approved so far, and what the label can’t tell you. It is part of our Quality section.
What is a CCP label?
The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) wrote the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), ten principles that a high-quality carbon credit should meetSource 1. The ICVCM describes the label as a way to set and maintain a global threshold standard for quality, making it easier for buyers to tell apart credits that represent real and verifiable climate impactSource 1.
The organisation behind the CCP label
Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)
Logos identify the organisations named; no endorsement is implied.
The label is not a rating. A credit either carries it or doesn’t, and it says nothing about how far above the threshold a credit sits.
The 10 Core Carbon Principles
The principles fall into three groupsSource 1:
Scrolls sideways to show every column.
| Group | Principle | In short |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | 1. Effective governance | The programme is transparent, accountable and keeps improving |
| Governance | 2. Tracking | A registry uniquely identifies and tracks every project and credit |
| Governance | 3. Transparency | Full information on every credited project is public |
| Governance | 4. Robust independent third-party validation and verification | Independent auditors check projects |
| Emissions impact | 5. Additionality | The reductions or removals would not have happened anyway |
| Emissions impact | 6. Permanence | They last, or there are measures in place if they are reversed |
| Emissions impact | 7. Robust quantification | Tonnes are counted conservatively, completely and scientifically |
| Emissions impact | 8. No double counting | Each tonne is counted only once |
| Sustainable development | 9. Sustainable development benefits and safeguards | Projects meet or go beyond established best practice on social and environmental safeguards |
| Sustainable development | 10. Contribution toward net zero transition | Projects avoid locking in emissions or practices incompatible with net zero |
As of Oct 2026
How does a credit get the CCP label?
The ICVCM calls this a “two-tick” process. A credit can be tagged with the CCP label only if both of these are trueSource 3:
- The programme is CCP-Eligible. The carbon-crediting programme that issues the credit, such as Verra or Gold Standard (see carbon standards), has been approved against the governance principles and related rules.
- The methodology is CCP-Approved. The method the project uses to count its tonnes has been approved for that category of credit.
The programme then applies the label to eligible credits in its own registry. When the first labels were announced, the ICVCM said the CCP-approved status of credits would be visible to buyers in the programmes’ registriesSource 3. Approval can come with conditions. When ACR, Climate Action Reserve and Gold Standard were confirmed as the first CCP-Eligible programmes, Gold Standard committed to recording the purpose of each retirement and the entity on whose behalf it is madeSource 2.
Which programmes and methodologies are approved?
By August 2026 the ICVCM had approved 13 carbon-crediting programmes as CCP-Eligible. It estimates that they account for more than 95% of cumulative voluntary carbon market issuancesSource 9. The programmes named in its 2026 decisions are ACR, ART TREES, Climate Action Reserve, Equitable Earth, Gold Standard, Global Carbon Council, Isometric, Puro.earth, Rainbow and VerraSource 8, plus BioCarbon Standard, Cercarbono and Plan VivoSource 9.
CCP-Eligible programmes named above (where a logo is available)
ACR
Climate Action Reserve
Gold Standard
Global Carbon Council
Isometric
Puro.earth
Verra
BioCarbon Standard
Cercarbono
Plan Vivo
Logos identify the organisations named; no endorsement is implied.
Methodologies are assessed one by one. By August 2026 the ICVCM had approved 41 methodologies and found that 25 did not meet its requirements, and it estimated that 115 million credits had been approved to use the labelSource 9. Key decisions so far:
- June 2024: the first seven methodologies approved, three for destroying ozone-depleting substances and four for capturing landfill gas, covering about 27 million creditsSource 3.
- August 2024: credits from eight current renewable energy methodologies refused the label, because they don’t test rigorously enough whether projects would have gone ahead without carbon financeSource 4.
- November 2024: three REDD+ forest-protection methodologies approved, including Verra’s VM0048. Credits from Verra’s older REDD+ methodologies won’t be able to receive the labelSource 5.
- March 2025: three cookstove methodologies approved with conditions on how fuel use is measured, and two earlier ones found insufficiently rigorousSource 6.
- August 2025: three biochar methodologies and two improved forest management methodologies approvedSource 7.
- May 2026: Verra’s VMR0017 for grid-connected renewable power approved with conditions, and Isometric’s mangrove restoration protocol approvedSource 8.
What the CCP label doesn’t tell you
The label is a threshold for programmes and methodologies. It doesn’t replace your own checks:
- It isn’t a project review. Two projects using the same approved methodology can still differ in quality. Independent carbon credit ratings assess projects one by one.
- It doesn’t prove the credit is yours. Only the registry record shows that credits were retired, and on whose behalf. Our guide to how to verify carbon credits shows how to check.
- It doesn’t cover everything. Credits from programmes or methodologies that haven’t been assessed can’t carry the label, whatever their quality. Ecosystem Marketplace notes that some project types, including novel ones with small market share, will always sit outside the CCPsSource 10.
A label is not a claim
Buying CCP-labelled credits doesn’t by itself make your company or product “carbon neutral”. Describe what you did instead: the number of tonnes, the project, the label and a link to the retirement record. Cut your own emissions first, then offset what remains.
Does the CCP label change the price?
Early evidence suggests it can. Ecosystem Marketplace found that the average price of CCP-approved landfill gas credits rose by 35% from the first half of 2024 to the second, and that the volume of waste disposal credits traded more than tripled in 2024, driven by demand for CCP-approved landfill gasSource 10. Our page on why carbon credit prices differ covers the other price drivers.
How to check for a CCP label before you buy
- Ask the seller whether the credits carry the CCP label, and which programme and methodology they come from.
- Check the registry. Look the credits up in the programme’s public registry and see whether the label is shown.
- Check the methodology against the ICVCM’s published decisions if the registry doesn’t show the label.
- Check the rest. Vintage, retirement in your name and the project itself still matter. Our guide to high-quality carbon credits brings these checks together.