Carbon Registry
Carbon offsets are generated from many types of emission reduction programs, including energy efficiency programs, Bio-diversity, GHG reduction in processing and manufacture. Others can be from forestry or planting activities and can vary in type, being verified, or a voluntary offsets. Many standards exist, and further standards are being developed by Government, Non Government Organizations and even agencies such as WWF.
The Registry Provides
- Information on the Program developer and under which standard the offsets were developed.
- Third party independent validation by a qualified agency.
- Each offset is given an individual serial number as a unique identifier.
- A contract is signed by the offset provider, transfering title and rights of the offsets to the exchange.
- A contractual agreement by the offset provider to the exchange insures that the provider will not re-issue the same offsets again into the market.
- An agreement or contract between buyer and seller can also identify the risks of project failures, who bears the risk of such failure and who would be responsible for replacing offsets.
The Registry tracks ownership of all offsets throughout their life cycle until they are finally retired. This avoids double accounting or the offsets being sold twice before retirement.
Registries Used by Each Standard
| Standard | Accepted Registries | Approval Process |
| CDM | CDM Registry | Verification documents need to be approved by the CDM Executive board |
| GS | Gold Standard Registry (currently under construction, predicted start date early 2008) For CERs: CDM Registry; GS-labeled CDM serial numbers will be tracked in the Gold Standard registry For VERs: Gold Standard Registry |
Verification documentation for CER and VER projects are approved by the Gold Standard Technical Advisory Committee CERs are issued by the UNFCCC and the Gold Standard label is delivered by the Gold Standard VERs are issued by the Gold Standard |
| VCS | In the process of accrediting multiple VCS registries that are electronically connected and transfer data between each other in real time. All registries will be connected to a central VCS project database which is under development and aiming to launch in March 2008. | Verification documents are approved by the third party auditor. |
| VER+ | Blue Registry of TÜV SÜD | Verification documents are approved by the third party auditor and then forwarded to BlueRegistry administration. All VER+ projects must be registered in the BlueRegistry. |
| VOS | Is planning to establish their own registry | For GS VERs: see above. For other VOS VERs: verification documents are approved by the third party auditor (DOE) |
| CCX | CCX Registry | Offset projects need to be approved by the CCX Committee on Offsets |
| CCBS | N/A | N/A |
| Plan Vivo | Plan Vivo Registry | Plan Vivo sells ex-ante credits (Plan Vivo Certificates) which are recorded in their own registry |
| GHG Protocol | N/A | N/A |
| ISO 14064-2 | N/A | N/A |
