High-Integrity Carbon Credits: driving the next chapter of the VCM

High-Integrity Carbon Credits: driving the next chapter of the VCM

The voluntary carbon market is at a turning point. As climate urgency intensifies, it is evolving rapidly-shaped by new standards, rising expectations, and a growing demand for credible, high-impact carbon credits.

Still, questions remain. Some credits have failed to deliver on climate, biodiversity, or social outcomes, fueling a demand for greater accountability. Buyers now expect clear evidence of effectiveness, and developers are challenged to generate not just carbon reductions but meaningful social and ecological co-benefits.

This marks a pivotal moment: high-integrity carbon credits are becoming the benchmark, reflecting a holistic approach where real-world impact across climate, communities, and ecosystems is central.

“High-integrity” vs. “High-quality” carbon credits

To understand what makes a carbon credit truly “high-integrity”, it helps to first distinguish between high quality and high integrity – two terms that are often used interchangeably but represent distinct dimensions of credibility.

High-quality carbon credits focus on the scientific and technical reliability, ensuring reductions or removals are:

• Additional: They wouldn’t have happened without financial support from carbon credit sales.

• Permanent: Carbon benefits are long-lasting and protected against reversal (e.g., through non-permanence buffers).
• Verifiable: Independent audits and inspections confirm impacts; transparent registries prevent double counting.
• Measurable: Monitoring uses robust, scientifically recognized methods.
• Leakage-proof: Projects avoid unintended consequences elsewhere.

High-integrity carbon credits go further. Integrity encompasses technical quality plus ethical, social, and environmental from both supply and demand side of the market.

On the supply side (project developers), integrity means project developers ensuring:

• Holistic environmental and social integration: Developing projects that protect  ecosystems, conserve biodiversity, and provide meaningful benefits to local communities.
• Ethical governance and transparency: Decision-making is accountable, traceable, and open, with clear reporting to stakeholders.
• Comprehensive risk management: Potential harms are proactively identified, mitigated, and monitored – from project design to implementation and eventual completion.
• Consistency over time: Integrity is maintained throughout the credit’s life, ensuring long-term reliability and trustworthiness

On the demand side (buyers), integrity refers to the use of carbon credits purchased by corporates, and how these credits are incorporated into their climate strategies. What is at stake is the genuine contribution of carbon credits to achieving net zero emissions across the global economy by 2050. Notably, buyers’ integrity implies:

• Integrate carbon credits into a robust decarbonization strategy: Corporates should follow the 3-step emissions mitigation hierarchy: Avoid > Reduce > Offset, applying credits from the earliest stage to address hard-to-abate emissions while aligning with Paris Agreement goals.
• Evaluate credit quality carefully: Like any financial asset, carbon credits vary widely. Rigorous due diligence ensures awareness of the climate, social, and environmental impacts, helping avoid financial or reputational risks.
• Use credits transparently and retire promptly: Disclosing volumes, prices, project types, locations, and vintages supports integrity, reduces speculation, and fosters a transparent, navigable carbon market.

In short, high-integrity credits combine scientific rigor with ethical and responsible practices across supply and demand, ensuring trustworthy impact.

Our Lomphat project in Cambodia.

Others actors of change in the Voluntary Carbon Market

Beyond project developers and buyers, the shift toward high-integrity credits is supported by a diverse set of market actors, each playing a crucial role in shaping the voluntary carbon market:

• Standards and labels: Frameworks such as ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles, CCB Standards, and ABACUS define clear rules for measurement, reporting, transparency, and responsible project management. They provide benchmarks that guide developers and give buyers confidence in the credibility of credits.

• Collective associations: Organizations such as the ISEAL Alliance and initiatives like the UNDP High-Integrity Carbon Market Initiative provide guidance, frameworks, and best practices to align the market with social, environmental, and ethical principles. They complement standards by promoting collaboration, accountability, and respect for local communities and Indigenous peoples.
• Regulators and policymakers: By enforcing environmental regulations, requiring impact assessments, and mandating community consultations, governments raise the baseline expectations for project integrity and accountability, shaping a market that prioritizes ethical practices.
• Rating entities: Independent evaluators add an extra layer of scrutiny, assessing whether projects meet both technical standards and social/environmental criteria. Their assessments help buyers make informed decisions and reinforce trust in the market.
• Investors: Corporates and financial institutions create demand for high-integrity credits by setting strict internal quality frameworks, requiring developers to demonstrate robust environmental, social, and governance practices. Their decisions incentivize high standards and drive the market toward projects with real, verifiable impact.

Together, these actors form a coordinated ecosystem that ensures carbon credits are not only scientifically rigorous but also ethically managed, delivering durable benefits for the climate, local communities, and ecosystems over time.

Why is this shift positive?

High-integrity credits improve market credibility and address past criticisms that have undermined carbon offset deployment. Investors, companies, and the public can trust that their contributions lead to genuine, verifiable, and ethically managed impacts, enabling the market to scale and channel more private finance toward climate-positive projects.

Integrity also drives value: in 2025, high-integrity credits sold at an average 65% premium over lower-quality credits (CSO Futures, 2025; Sylvera, 2025), reflecting the added social and environmental benefits. Leading companies such as Amazon and Microsoft recognize labels like ABACUS as benchmarks for high-integrity carbon removal, signaling preference for projects delivering real-world outcomes beyond carbon alone.

By raising standards and demonstrating real-world impact, high-integrity projects build trust in the voluntary carbon market, attract more investors, and help ensure that carbon finance contributes meaningfully to climate, biodiversity, and community outcomes.

Our approach at hummingbirds

hummingbirds has been adapting both internal practices and partner engagement strategies with the aim to meet the highest level of integrity. At hummingbirds, we are committed to supporting projects that deliver holistic, high-integrity impact – not only in terms of carbon sequestration but also in environmental, social, and governance dimensions..

Our Lomphat conservation project in Cambodia, certified under Verra and the Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, exemplifies this approach. Among its many activities, the project creates jobs and provides training in sustainable forest management and agriculture, and initiatives such as the Ibis Rice Program promote sustainable rice production across multiple Community Protected Areas. On the environmental side, Lomphat monitors flagship species – including Giant Ibis, White-shouldered Ibis, Red-headed Vulture, and Sarus Crane – and restores critical habitats for threatened flora and fauna. These examples illustrate the type of integrated actions the project undertakes to ensure conservation outcomes are real, measurable, and long-lasting, while highlighting that the project encompasses a broader set of initiatives supporting communities and ecosystems.

A young elephant rescued from poachers by the ranger team at the sanctuary, December 2024.

Similarly, the Mount Kei Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) project in Uganda, certified under VCS, CCB, and FSC standards, demonstrates strong stakeholder engagement and community acceptance. The project has created numerous employment opportunities and actively involves local populations in decision-making, while restoring degraded lands and enhancing ecosystem resilience.

Seedling preparation by community members.

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