The Quality Crisis and Its Resolution
The voluntary carbon market (VCM) entered 2024 under significant credibility pressure. A series of investigative reports in 2023 — targeting certain REDD+ projects and their additionality claims — triggered a market-wide reassessment of credit quality. Retirement volumes fell sharply, prices for lower-quality credits collapsed, and corporate buyers became markedly more selective.
The market's response has centred on the work of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) framework. The CCP label, launched in 2023 and progressively applied through 2024–2025, provides an independent quality threshold that goes beyond the baseline standards of individual registries such as Verra and Gold Standard.
CCP Label: What It Requires
CCP approval is granted at two levels: the Assessment Framework (AF) level — covering the registry and methodology — and the Category level — covering specific project types. Key criteria include:
- Additionality: Stringent demonstration that emission reductions or removals would not have occurred in the absence of the carbon finance
- Permanence: Robust buffer pools and reversal risk management
- No double counting: Correspondence claims aligned with Article 6 Paris Agreement principles
- Transparency: Public disclosure of all material project data
Projects receive a rating from A to AAA based on their performance against these criteria. The rating differentiates pricing: AAA-rated credits command significant premiums over A-rated or unlabelled credits.
Market Impact: 95 Million Credits in H1 2025
By mid-2025, approximately 95 million CCP-labelled credits had been retired globally, representing roughly 34% of total H1 2025 VCM retirement volume. This share is growing rapidly as corporate sustainability commitments increasingly specify CCP-labelled credits as the only acceptable form of offsetting.
The price differential is equally striking. While standard voluntary credits for avoided deforestation trade at USD 3–8 per tonne, CCP-rated removal credits command USD 15–40 per tonne, with the highest-rated nature-based removal projects reaching USD 50+.
Implications for CRCF-Positioned Projects
CRCF certification under the EU framework is designed to be structurally equivalent to — or stricter than — CCP requirements. EU-origin agroforestry projects that achieve both CCP approval and CRCF certification will be positioned at the premium tier of the global carbon credit market.
The CCP label has established the principle that quality commands price. CRCF extends this principle with the additional endorsement of EU regulatory oversight — the gold standard for institutional European buyers.
VERDANTIS is monitoring CCP category assessments for agroforestry methodologies closely. A positive CCP assessment of the VPS methodology would independently validate the carbon accounting approach and strengthen investor confidence ahead of the CRCF certification process.