What must a carbon credit registry record when a credit is retired, under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) rules?

For the Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label, a program's registry shall require the entity on whose behalf a credit was retired and the purpose of retirement. It must block further transfer, retirement or cancellation, and have procedures for erroneous issuance. This sits on top of Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) requirements.

Three registry duties

1. Require identification of the entity on whose behalf the carbon credit was retired.
2. Require the identification of the purpose of retirement.
3. Have procedures to address erroneous issuance, identifying remedial measures (for example cancellation or compensation through replacement) and the entities responsible for carrying them out.

No second use

Table 6.2 adds that the program shall have registry provisions that prevent the further transfer, retirement or cancellation of a carbon credit once it has been cancelled or retired. The framework counts double issuance, double claiming and double use as the three forms of double counting, and this is the double-use block.

What to fill in when you retire

• Our reading: name your own legal entity as the beneficiary, not a broker or a parent group, because the framework asks for the entity on whose behalf the credit was retired.
• State the purpose in words you can repeat in a report, such as the claim year and what the credits are meant to support.
• Save the registry's retirement record next to the purchase invoice.

Fields a retirement record should let you read back

• Entity on whose behalf: the buying company's registered name
• Purpose of retirement: a short statement of the claim and year it supports
• Serial number range and quantity: as shown by the registry
• Status afterwards: retired, with no further transfer possible

Field names vary by registry. This is an example of what to be able to read back, not a registry form.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, which gives a project its own fuel and power history. Credits are issued by the program's registry and checked by an independent verifier, not by Senseible's own check.

• Check that a credit was really retired
• Retire or cancel a Carbon Credit Trading Scheme offset credit
• What to check before buying a carbon credit
• Carbon credits for Indian businesses

Sources: Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, Core Carbon Principles Assessment Framework, Section 4, January 2024, version 1.1 (criteria 2.1 and 6.2)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Based on Assessment Framework version 1.1 (January 2024). The Integrity Council's August 2026 rule architecture says Interpretations and Technical Notices may affect how criteria are assessed, so check icvcm.org for any in effect before you rely on a detail.