What happens if the Verra verifier gives a negative opinion?

The verification body sends its report and your monitoring report to Verra with a negative opinion. Under VCS Standard v5.0 the project is then ineligible for registration until corrective action is taken and the same body gives a positive opinion. An adverse or modified opinion must give its reasons before its conclusion.

What the standard requires

• Where the project does not meet the criteria, the verification body produces a negative opinion and gives Verra the report and the project description or monitoring report.
• The project is ineligible for registration until corrective action is taken and the same body has given a positive opinion.
• Adverse, disclaimed, modified or qualified opinions must describe the reasons, placed before the conclusion.

Why 'the same body' matters

Only the same body can clear it: the body that said no has to be the one that says yes. A clear scope and early questions save a round.

Not the same as a deviation

Where the project does not fully conform to the methodology, the body first decides whether that is a methodology deviation or a methodology revision, and handles it accordingly. A permitted deviation is not a negative opinion.

Avoiding it

• Know the materiality test: errors, omissions and misstatements together must stay under 5% of reported reductions for a project of 300,000 tonnes (t) carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) a year or less, and 1% above that.
• Close findings with evidence in the file, not with a promise.
• Keep every month's fuel and power records complete, not just the months the verifier visits.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps your fuel and power invoices as dated monthly records, so the months of evidence a verifier asks for are complete and each figure traces to its bill. It does not act as a verifier or give an opinion; Verra approves those bodies.

• Carbon credits
• The 5% materiality test
• What deviations Verra allows
• Can the same verifier act every year

Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025), Sections 4.1.9, 4.1.15, 4.1.16 and 4.1.24

Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Section numbers are from VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025); re-check them when Verra publishes a new version.