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Which carbon standard is right for my project?

How to choose between Verra, Gold Standard, Puro, Isometric, CSI, Rainbow and CAR for a biochar, clean cooking or ARR project.

4 min readLast reviewed

Which carbon standard is right for my project? A shortlist of seven standards, two marked eligible, two maybe and three not a fit.

Choosing the right carbon standard is one of the foundational choices for a carbon project developer, and it shapes the rest of the project. The standard sets the methodology you follow, how credits are calculated, what you have to monitor, and who is likely to buy the credits. Choosing the wrong standard means building the project to the wrong specifications, which can waste time and resources.

For most project types, the choice comes down to only a couple of standards and methodologies, and a few questions help developers decide which is best for them.

Start with your project type

Not every standard covers every project type. These are the methodologies our tools check:

Biochar

7 methodologies

Clean cooking

4 methodologies

ARR

1 methodology
  • VerraVM0047 v1.1, area-based and census-based

Five questions that narrow it down

  1. Where is the project?

    Project location can rule out some standards and methodologies immediately. For example, CAR's biochar protocol only covers the US and Canada. Even where eligibility isn't affected, the country can change key factors such as the fraction of non-renewable biomass (fNRB) and the downward adjustment factor (DAF), depending on the methodology chosen. Both can have a big impact on credit volumes.

  2. What is the project scale?

    Carbon standards treat large pyrolysis plants very differently from small distributed kilns. Some standards only cover one of the two routes, while others, like Verra VM0044, have separate high and low technology routes depending on the technology used. The size and type of the operation can affect the monitoring data you collect, how strict the eligibility criteria are, and which buyers are interested in the project.

  3. Project technology, fuel and other details

    Small project details can change the best standard for your project. In clean cooking, for example, solar thermal cookers and electric cookers fall under different methodologies. In biochar, as mentioned above, the technology affects which methodologies are open to you. The feedstock matters too, as some standards only accept certain feedstocks or ask for specific evidence about them.

  4. Removal or reduction, and who's buying?

    Biochar and ARR remove carbon, while clean cooking reduces emissions. Some removal-focused buyers prefer removal-focused registries such as Puro.earth and Isometric, while more traditional registries like Verra (VCS) and Gold Standard have the deepest markets for clean cooking projects. If you're approaching project development with a buyer in mind, it's often worth asking which standards they prefer and building the project to that standard.

  5. What can you monitor?

    Each methodology requires different evidence: lab tests on carbon content and H/Corg for biochar, usage surveys or stove use monitors for clean cooking, tree measurements for ARR. Your project should use data you can collect for the whole crediting period.

Check your project in minutes

The Carbon Unity eligibility assessment tool assesses your project against multiple methodologies at once. Once you've answered the questions, you get a verdict for each methodology. Every verdict shows the reason and the section of the methodology it comes from, so you can check the eligibility criteria yourself.

Verdicts are Eligible, Maybe Eligible or Ineligible. "Maybe Eligible" usually means you answered "unknown", or the answer depends on details the methodology leaves open. Those are the points to pin down first.

Eligibility assessment results for an example clean cooking project, showing a verdict for each Gold Standard and Verra methodology and a chart of how the project scores by category.
Results from the eligibility assessment for an example clean cooking project.

See which standards your project can qualify for

Free during the beta. No account needed.

Check your project's eligibility

What the check won't tell you

This tool is only a screening, not a validation. A validation and verification body will still want evidence on project aspects like additionality and your rights to the land or carbon. Use it to narrow down the standard, then check the detail in the methodology text, or talk to us.

Next step

Compare the credits

Once you know which standards your project is eligible for, the quantification tool estimates credits under each one, so you can compare the numbers side by side.

Estimate your credits Check eligibility first
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