The Core Carbon Principles (CCP) are ten quality principles for carbon units developed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). They serve as a common threshold: a program and a category of units that meet them qualify for the CCP label. The principles help buyers tell a reliable unit from a questionable one.
The ten principles
The principles fall into three groups.
Governance
- Effective governance: the program is managed transparently and is accountable for quality.
- Tracking: the registry identifies each unit unambiguously and records its transfers and retirement.
- Transparency: project documents, methodologies and reports are accessible.
- Robust independent validation and verification by a third party.
Emissions impact
- Additionality: the reduction would not have happened without revenue from units (see additionality).
- Permanence: the risk of carbon returning to the atmosphere is accounted for and compensated.
- Robust quantification: a conservative baseline and a well-founded calculation.
- No double counting: a tonne is never issued, claimed or used twice (see leakage, permanence and double counting).
Sustainable development
- Sustainable development and safeguards: the project does no harm to people or ecosystems and complies with social and environmental requirements.
- Contribution toward the net zero transition: the project does not lock in high-carbon technologies and is consistent with net zero goals.
Two levels of assessment
The ICVCM assesses two things separately:
- the program (for example, a voluntary market standard): whether its design meets the principles of governance, tracking, transparency and verification; a program that does is granted CCP-Eligible status;
- the category of units (the project type and methodology): whether it meets the emissions impact and sustainable development principles.
Important: CCP-Eligible status of a program does not mean that every unit it issues carries the CCP label. Only units that belong to approved categories and are issued under an approved program receive the label. Check the label on the specific unit in the registry.
Applying the principles in practice
For buyers:
- Make sure the program has CCP-Eligible status.
- Check that the category of units is approved and that the unit carries the label.
- Review the project documents: the baseline, verification reports and information about the permanence buffer.
- Word your claim in line with the VCMI Claims Code of Practice v3.0 to avoid greenwashing.
For project owners:
- choose a methodology that belongs to an approved category;
- build conservative assumptions into the calculation;
- make sure the data can be traced from the primary document all the way to the report.
How it works in the platform
- The MRV and Market contours, where climate projects will be prepared and carbon units accounted for, are marked “Soon”: they are under development.
- In the GHG contour, you can already see what a calculation is based on: supporting documents are attached to records, each record shows the methodology applied, and the change history for a facility's year shows who changed what and when (Data entry). This keeps the data traceable from the primary document to the report.
The platform does not assign the CCP label: that decision rests with the ICVCM and the programs.
Frequently asked questions
Does the CCP label guarantee that a unit is high quality?
It confirms that the program and the category meet the ICVCM threshold requirements. That is a strong signal, but buyers should still study the documents of the specific project.
Is the CCP label required to sell units?
No, units without the label can be sold too. However, many buyers rely on it when making a choice, and labeled units may be priced differently.
Do the CCP principles apply to Article 6.4 units?
The CCPs were developed for the voluntary market. The requirements of the 6.4 mechanism are set by its UN body; check how they relate to the CCPs in the regulatory map.