What must a carbon crediting program require of the validators and verifiers who check a project, under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) rules?

Under the Core Carbon Principles (CCP), a program shall require its validation and verification bodies to be accredited by a recognised international accreditation standard. It shall also review how those bodies perform and be able to suspend or revoke one that falls short.

The two requirements

1. Require validation and verification bodies (VVBs) to be accredited by a recognised international accreditation standard, for example the current edition of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14065 and 14066, or per rules relating to the Kyoto Protocol Clean Development Mechanism or the Paris Agreement Article 6, paragraph 4 Supervisory Body.
2. Have a process for managing VVB performance: systematic review of validation and verification activities and reports, remedial measures, a way to report poor performance to the relevant accreditation body, and provisions to suspend or revoke a VVB's participation in the program.

Who the framework means

The definitions call a VVB an independent third-party entity accredited to perform validation and/or verification audits. Validation is the independent evaluation of a project that asks for registration. Verification is the periodic independent evaluation, after the reductions have happened, of requests to issue credits.

What it means for your choice of verifier

• Ask for the body's accreditation under the program you plan to use, Our reading: also check it covers the project type.
• Our reading: the framework tests the program's rules, so it does not by itself tell you a particular body is good. Ask the program how it reviews VVB work.
• India's own Carbon Credit Trading Scheme has separate accreditation rules for its agencies, covered on the linked page.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records that a project can hand to the validation and verification body it chooses. Validation, verification and issuing sit with that body and the program.

• Who verifies under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme
• Verra validator eligibility and sectoral scope
• Validator and verifier must differ in a Carbon Credit Trading Scheme offset project
• 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 (criterion 4.1), Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, Core Carbon Principles Definitions, Section 5, January 2024, version 1.1

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.