Confirm the credit record
Check the registry, project ID, standard, credit type, vintage, issuance status, serial numbers, and retirement or cancellation pathway.
Service guide
Credit Due Diligence
A practical review process for checking carbon credit quality before procurement, with attention to project documentation, registry evidence, methodology fit, risk, and claims suitability.
Overview
Due diligence turns carbon credit quality into a structured review.
Carbon credit due diligence is the process of reviewing whether a credit is suitable for a buyer's purpose before it is purchased, transferred, cancelled, or retired. It looks beyond availability and price to the evidence behind the project and issuance.
A practical review checks the standard, registry record, project documents, methodology, monitoring and verification history, ownership or retirement status, risk factors, and whether the credit aligns with the buyer's intended climate claim.
01
Evidence
Registry records, serial numbers, project documents, verification, and retirement status.
02
Quality
Additionality, permanence, leakage, quantification, safeguards, and double counting risk.
03
Suitability
Fit with claim type, buyer expectations, timing, geography, budget, and risk appetite.
Review path
A practical path from project record to buyer decision.
Review project documents
Assess project design documents, monitoring reports, validation or verification statements, methodology references, and public disclosures.
Screen quality risks
Look for additionality, permanence, leakage, over-crediting, safeguard, governance, delivery, reputational, and double counting risks.
Map claim suitability
Confirm whether the credit is suitable for the buyer's intended use, climate claim, reporting needs, and internal approval process.
Quality tests
What should be reviewed before a credit is accepted?
Carbon credit quality is not a single yes-or-no test. A due diligence process brings together integrity criteria, project-level documentation, market context, and the buyer's intended use of the credit.
Additionality
Review whether the project activity is likely to be beyond legal requirements, common practice, and business-as-usual outcomes.
Permanence
Check durability, reversal risk, buffer mechanisms, monitoring periods, and how losses of stored carbon are handled.
Quantification
Review baselines, monitoring, calculation methods, uncertainty, leakage, and whether emission reductions are conservatively estimated.
No double counting
Confirm that credits are uniquely issued and tracked, with clear evidence of ownership, transfer, cancellation, or retirement.
Safeguards
Look for social and environmental safeguards, stakeholder consultation, grievance processes, and sustainable development claims.
Governance
Review program rules, verifier independence, project transparency, conflict risks, and the reliability of available documentation.
Evidence review
Useful due diligence looks at documents and decision context.
Registry records
Check project listing details, credit serial numbers, issuance volume, vintage, ownership status, transfer history, and retirement or cancellation records.
Methodology fit
Review whether the credited activity follows an approved methodology and whether that methodology is appropriate for the project type and location.
Verification history
Assess validation and verification reports, monitoring periods, verifier statements, data quality, and any gaps or unusual changes over time.
Project-level risks
Consider land tenure, community impacts, delivery history, reversal risk, regulatory changes, local context, reputational concerns, and supply constraints.
Claims and reporting
Confirm how the credit will be used, what statement the buyer intends to make, and what evidence should be retained after retirement.
Reference points
Built around recognised quality guidance.
Due diligence should be informed by transparent standards, project-level evidence, and recognised integrity criteria. These references shape the review language used on this page.
Ready to review a credit?