ICVCM Approves Reforestation, IFM and Rice Methane Methodologies Under CCP Framework

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has approved three new carbon crediting methodologies, covering reforestation, improved forest management in US forestlands, and rice cultivation methane avoidance. Projects issuing credits primarily from India under the rice cultivation methodology will be eligible for CCP labels provided approval conditions are met.

The three decisions include full approval of Isometric's ISM Reforestation Protocol v1.1, conditional approval of Gold Standard's rice cultivation methane avoidance methodology v1.0, and conditional approval of ACR's Improved Forest Management methodology for non-federal US forestlands v2.0. No credits have yet been issued under the Isometric reforestation protocol, but 20 project developers are registered and Isometric expects to issue over 4 million credits annually by 2030. Under the rice cultivation methodology, approximately 50,000 credits have been issued to date, but none comply with the required approval conditions and will therefore not be eligible for CCP labels.

The rice cultivation methodology carries significant relevance for Asia, where most rice-paddy methane emissions are generated. A 2025 study estimates that rice paddies account for roughly 7 percent of global methane emissions. Gold Standard expects to issue up to 3.2 million credits over the next five years under this methodology, with projects primarily located in India and additional activities in Pakistan, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, and Thailand. For the ACR IFM methodology v2.0, 2.7 million credits are expected to be immediately eligible for the CCP label from a total of 13.3 million issued credits, subject to the approval conditions.

As of January 2026, the ICVCM has approved eight carbon crediting programs as CCP-Eligible and 38 methodologies as meeting the Assessment Framework requirements, with 22 found not to meet requirements. An estimated 105 million credits have been approved to use the CCP label, of which approximately 52 million are available in the market and 53 million have been retired or cancelled. The India-centric focus of the rice methane methodology pipeline reinforces the national relevance of carbon market integrity frameworks for India's agricultural sector, which faces mounting pressure to reduce emissions in line with national climate commitments.

Key figure — 4 million credits expected to be issued annually by 2030 under Isometric reforestation protocol