ICVCM Report Calls for Standardised Carbon Market Infrastructure and Fee Transparency

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has published findings from its Continuous Improvement Work Program on Market Transparency, Scalability and Standardisation, identifying fragmented infrastructure and inconsistent fee disclosure as key barriers to scaling high-integrity carbon markets. The report recommends alignment with international standards including ISO, IOSCO, ISSB, and UNIDROIT to improve registry resilience and interoperability.

The work program brought together experts from carbon-crediting programs, project developers, financial institutions, infrastructure and data providers, legal and accounting specialists, and Indigenous Peoples and local community members. Three interconnected areas were examined: market infrastructure, pricing transparency, and structured finance enablement. The report found significant variation in how registries record credit ownership, disclose data, and manage risk. It recommends greater alignment around harmonised data formats, improved auditability, and international standards to create a more resilient and interoperable market infrastructure.

On pricing and fee transparency, the report calls for better disclosure of carbon-crediting programs' fee structures and more consistent terminology to support comparability and reduce information asymmetry between buyers and sellers. It emphasises that communities hosting carbon projects should have fair access to information and meaningful participation in benefit-sharing negotiations. On structured finance, the report identifies opportunities to align carbon credit treatment with emerging global guidance on risk disclosure, assurance standards, and financial classification — conditions necessary to attract institutional capital at scale.

The report's findings will inform future refinements to the CCP Assessment Framework and complement ongoing work on benefit-sharing and validation and verification body oversight. The ICVCM acknowledged that carbon markets have developed with limited regulatory oversight, resulting in the fragmented infrastructure that currently limits scale. The organisation committed to continued engagement with diverse experts and stakeholders to support development of a high-integrity, scalable, and investment-ready carbon market. Inquiries on the work program can be directed to the ICVCM at [email protected].

Key figure — Four thematic areas addressed: infrastructure, pricing, benefit-sharing, structured finance