The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), previously called the Voluntary Carbon Standard, is a system used to check and approve carbon credits that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Verra, an organization that verifies carbon credits, manages the VCS. As of 2024, over 2,300 projects are registered under the VCS. These projects work in different areas, including Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU), energy, transportation, waste, manufacturing, and other industries. Together, these projects have created more than 1.3 billion carbon credits, and over 776 million of these credits have been used up to date.

Specific rules exist for REDD+ projects, which focus on protecting forests. Verra is the most common choice for verifying forest-related carbon credits in the voluntary market and for most REDD+ projects. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market lists the VCS as a program that meets the Core Carbon Principles benchmark.

Verra was created in 2005 by the company Climate Wedge and its partner Cheyne Capital. They developed the first version (version 1.0) of the Voluntary Carbon Standard. This standard was designed to ensure quality for carbon credits not covered by the Kyoto Protocol. At the time, Climate Wedge worked as a firm that advised on investments in carbon markets.

There are concerns about the VCS and how it is used. In 2023, an investigation by The Guardian, Die Zeit, and SourceMaterial found that about 94% of rainforest carbon credits approved by Verra may not effectively reduce emissions. The investigation suggested that the standard might even increase global warming. In May 2023, after facing criticism about its handling of carbon credits, Verra’s CEO, David Antonioli, resigned.

In June 2024, three carbon credit projects in the Brazilian Amazon were temporarily stopped after police raids targeted Verra-certified projects linked to illegal land use and logging activities.

Usage in voluntary carbon markets

Verra was created in 2005. It is a standard for reducing carbon emissions that people choose to follow, and it provides specific ways to measure REDD+ projects. By 2020, more than 1,500 projects had been officially approved under Verra across areas like energy, transport, waste, forestry, and other industries. In 2021, Verra issued 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in offset credits for 110 projects. Verra is the most preferred program for forest-related credits in the voluntary market and nearly all REDD+ projects.

Development

In 2005, the carbon markets investment advisory firm Climate Wedge and its partner Cheyne Capital created and wrote the first version (version 1.0) of the Voluntary Carbon Standard. This standard was designed to set quality rules for buying and creating "non-Kyoto" Protocol carbon credits. These credits were voluntary reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from projects that met the quality and verification rules of the UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offset system. However, these projects were not eligible for certified emission reduction (CER) credits because the CDM only allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn CER credits.

In March 2006, Climate Wedge and Cheyne Capital gave the Voluntary Carbon Standard version 1.0 to The Climate Group, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), and World Economic Forum. They also provided the first funding for these non-profit organizations to gather a team of global carbon market experts to continue developing the VCS requirements. Later, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) joined the effort. This team formed the VCS Steering Committee, which worked to create the second and later versions of the VCS Standard.

In 2008, the Board of Directors named David Antonioli as the organization’s first chief executive officer. In 2009, VCS became a non-profit non-governmental organization based in Washington D.C.

On February 15, 2018, the organization that manages the Verified Carbon Standard changed its name from Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) to Verra. The new name was chosen to represent "verification" and "terra," which reflects the core purpose of the organization’s work.

In May 2023, after months of criticism about how Verra handled carbon-offsetting projects, CEO David Antonioli resigned.

Controversies

A 2021 study by The Guardian newspaper and Unearthed found that Verra's carbon offsetting standard had problems. Projects that protected forests used different methods to predict results and claimed they reduced emissions more than they actually did. Eleven out of twelve projects studied showed no difference in emissions compared to control groups. The study raised concerns about whether the carbon offsetting market is reliable.

In January 2023, a nine-month investigation by The Guardian, Die Zeit, and SourceMaterial, a non-profit journalism group, found that about 94% of rainforest carbon credits approved by Verra did not represent one tonne of carbon dioxide. These credits made up about 40% of all credits Verra approved. The report also said the credit system might increase global warming and that the risk of deforestation for Verra projects was overestimated by 400% on average. In Peru, some people living near a Verra project site reported being forced to leave their homes, which were later destroyed. The investigation used a study by scientists from the University of Cambridge and another study by international researchers that had not yet been reviewed by experts.

In 2024, a Channel 4 documentary discussed these issues and included reports from Human Rights Watch about an investigation into a Verra project in Cambodia, where Indigenous people feared their homes and farmland would be destroyed by armed rangers.

In May 2024, Mongabay, a Brazilian news outlet, reported that two Verra-certified carbon credit projects in the Amazon may be linked to illegal logging. After the report, Brazilian police searched three projects owned by Ricardo Stoppe, Brazil’s largest individual seller of carbon credits. These projects include companies like GOL Airlines, Nestlé, Toshiba, Spotify, Boeing, and PwC.

Forestry projects have faced criticism for their reliability as offset programs. News reports from 2021 to 2023 questioned the effectiveness of nature-based carbon offsets, the REDD+ program, and certification groups. One report estimated that about 90% of rainforest credits under the Verified Carbon Standard may be "phantom credits," meaning they do not reflect real emissions reductions.

Tree-planting projects have also been criticized. Trees take decades to grow, and it is hard to ensure forests will remain protected. Forests may be cleared, burned, or mismanaged. Some projects use fast-growing invasive species, which harm native plants and reduce biodiversity. To address this, some standards now require planting multiple species. In high-latitude forests, tree cover may absorb sunlight, creating a warming effect that cancels out the cooling from carbon absorption. Tree-planting projects can also cause conflicts with local communities and Indigenous people if the projects limit their use of forest resources.