Three REDD+ Methodologies Win High-Integrity Approval from ICVCM

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market granted CCP approval to three REDD+ carbon crediting methodologies covering forest protection projects in developing countries. The decision clears the path for these credits to carry the high-integrity CCP label once methodologies begin issuing.

The Integrity Council approved ART's TREES v2.0, Verra's VM0048, and Verra's JNR Framework v4.1 as meeting its Core Carbon Principles. The decision brings a large pipeline of potential credits closer to market — 123 million credits are in development under nine ART TREES jurisdictions, approximately 300 million are in the pipeline under VM0048, and five projects are under development in Verra's JNR Framework. Crucially, VM0048 shifts baseline-setting responsibility from individual project developers to Verra, which will use jurisdictional deforestation data.

The approvals are expected to restore buyer confidence in REDD+ credits, a category that faced significant reputational damage from earlier methodologies that allowed project developers to set self-serving baselines. Expert Panel co-chair Gabriel Labbate noted that the approved methodologies demonstrate rigorous approaches to additionality, permanence, quantification, and social safeguards. Jurisdictional methodologies such as TREES and JNR operate at national or sub-national scale, offering forest protection through policy and regulatory frameworks.

Verra's five older REDD+ methodologies — which accounted for around a quarter of all carbon credits retired in 2023 — were excluded from assessment by Verra and cannot receive the CCP label. Projects using these older methods must transition to VM0048 and undergo requantification. Two additional TREES v2.0 crediting levels and clean cookstove methodologies remain in assessment, with Integrity Council board decisions expected by year-end.

Key figure — A quarter of all carbon credits retired in 2023 used Verra's excluded older REDD+ methodologies