A centralized database system that tracks the issuance, ownership, transfer, and retirement of carbon credits, assigning unique serial numbers to each credit for full lifecycle traceability and preventing double-counting across voluntary and compliance carbon markets.
Semantic Classification
Content
Technical Details
- Major Voluntary Market Registries:
- Verra (VCS): World’s most widely used, 2,300+ projects, 1.3B credits issued
- Gold Standard: WWF-founded, emphasis on sustainable development
- American Carbon Registry (ACR): Oldest voluntary program
- Climate Action Reserve (CAR): North America focused
- Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART): REDD+ jurisdictional programs
- Registry Functions:
- Project registration and documentation
- Credit issuance with unique serial numbers
- Ownership tracking and transfer recording
- Retirement (permanent removal from circulation)
- Public transparency and auditability
- Research Resources: Berkeley Carbon Trading Project database aggregates all five major registries for research and transparency
- Quality Standards: ICVCM approval, CORSIA eligibility verification
Applications
- Carbon credit lifecycle management
- Project documentation and verification
- Market transparency and research
- Regulatory compliance tracking
- Double-counting prevention