Core Carbon Principles (CCP)
A set of ten benchmark criteria for carbon credit integrity published by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Credits produced under a methodology that passes assessment can carry the CCP label.
Why the Core Carbon Principles matters for carbon credit buyers
The CCP label gives buyers a single, standard-agnostic signal of baseline integrity, assessed at the methodology level rather than project by project. That distinction matters: a CCP-Approved methodology means the rulebook met the threshold, not that every project using it performs equally, so project-level ratings and due diligence still apply. The ICVCM has assessed programmes representing the large majority of historic market issuance, approving some methodology categories and declining others, and it continues to publish decisions as methodologies are revised. Many corporate procurement policies now use CCP eligibility as a first screening filter before deeper comparison.