ACR Afforestation and Reforestation Methodology Earns Core Carbon Principle (CCP) Approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)

ACR credits issued to projects for natural forest establishment and restoration activities now eligible for CCP-Approved Label

ACR’s Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (ARR) methodology has earned Core Carbon Principle (CCP) approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) in the latest round of methodology assessments. Carbon credits issued to projects under the methodology are eligible for CCP-Approved status.

The CCP label is active in the ACR Registry. For the ARR methodology, it is applied to credits issued to projects verified for conformance that plant native species on degraded lands to sequester carbon and contribute to an ecosystem with broad environmental benefits and avoid potential negative impacts. All credits issued to date under the ARR methodology meet the criteria and requirements for CCP-approval and will be labeled as such. This is a total of 7,792,791 credits, including those that have been retired prior to the CCP Approval Decision.

While ACR views this as an important step forward, we will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout their assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies, which includes emission reductions and removals from industrial and nature-based solutions.

ICVCM approved ACR at the program level as “Core Carbon Principles (CCP) Eligible” in April 2024. To become approved, ACR submitted an extensive application to ICVCM for assessment. We provided evidence of being a CORSIA Eligible Emissions Unit Program, in addition to meeting the CCP’s criteria around effective governance, credit tracking, transparency, and robust, independent third-party validation and verification.

Since its founding in 1996 as the world’s first private greenhouse gas registry, ACR has innovated and operationalized key elements of carbon credit quality assurance, including scientific peer-reviewed accounting methodologies and well-accepted approaches to address additionality, leakage, and reversal risk mitigation; oversight of independent third-party verification; and operation of a transparent registry for the issuance and tracking of serialized credits.

ACR’s approach to program quality has earned approval to issue credits for use in regulated carbon markets, including the State of California’s Cap-and-Trade Program, the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), the State of Washington’s Cap-and-Invest Program, and towards compliance with Singapore’s Carbon Pricing Act.

ACR expects additional methodologies to earn ICVCM approval, which will provide confidence to buyers in credit quality and allow finance to flow to impactful climate solutions to support the goals of the Paris Agreement. The urgency of climate change demands nothing less.

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