The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has published its latest round of assessment decisions, approving the Global Carbon Council (GCC) as a CCP-eligible program, clearing two new methodologies for renewable energy and mangrove restoration, and requiring significant revisions to two ART TREES crediting levels.
GCC 2.0 was found to meet the high-integrity standards set by ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) after strengthening provisions covering confidentiality, non-permanence risk assessment, crediting period renewal, uncertainty, and safeguard assessment procedures.
This means that its methodologies may now enter the two-tick assessment process, with CCP labels applicable to GCC 2.0 and projects following the Standard on ICVCM Eligibility of Projects and Issuances v1.1 or later.
On methodologies, Verra’s VMR0017 v1.0 grid-connected renewable energy standard, which is a revision of a methodology covering wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro, and wave or tidal power, received conditional CCP approval. No historical issuances will qualify, but a large pipeline of new projects is expected.
Verra’s ACM0008 methodology, covering methane abatement from coal mines under versions 6 to 8, was also approved on a conditional basis for ventilation air methane and coal mine methane activities only, with approximately 6.44 million previously issued credits unlikely to meet eligibility conditions.
Isometric’s Mangrove Restoration Protocol v1.0, published in December 2025, received outright CCP approval, with up to 2 million removal credits expected by 2030.
Relevant: Rainbow Carbon Standard Gains CCP-Eligible Status from ICVCM
However, ART TREES v2.0‘s High Forest Cover, Low Deforestation (HFLD) crediting level, under which 58.4 million credits have already been issued, was denied approval.
It was sent back with significant remedial actions required, including the need for participants to demonstrate that historical baseline emissions significantly underestimate likely future deforestation.
Their Removals crediting level, under which no credits have yet been issued, received a similar outcome.
“The difficult decisions we have taken to date are charting a path towards increased methodological rigour, as demonstrated by the approval of a new generation of more robust renewable energy methodologies,” said Annette Nazareth, Chair of the Integrity Council.
Since its first program decisions in March 2024, ICVCM has now approved nine carbon crediting programs as CCP-eligible and assessed 65 methodologies, with an estimated 107 million credits cleared to carry the CCP label.
Read more: Isometric, Gold Standard And ACR Methodologies Gain CCP-Approved Status From ICVCM
