Verra Launches Updated Landmark Standard, with Communities at Its Core

Verra Launches Updated Landmark Standard, with Communities at Its Core

WASHINGTON – Dec. 16, 2025 | Verra has launched version 5 of its market-leading Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, introducing its most comprehensive social and environmental safeguards and placing communities at the center of climate action.

The updated VCS Program strengthens requirements across the full project lifecycle, with a particular focus on respecting land and resource rights, reinforcing stakeholder engagement, and enhancing adaptive management.

The new version was developed in consultation with experts, governments, and civil society, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Global Land Alliance (GLA), Namati, a nonprofit leader for advancing social and environmental justice, and the Grassroots Justice Network, an alliance of justice groups from 180 countries. The development process included three public consultations, which together generated nearly 5,000 comments from around 200 respondents, the highest rate of responses ever received in a VCS Program consultation.

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The latest version of the VCS Program follows Verra’s systematic strengthening of the foundations of the carbon market, modernizing core methodologies like REDD and cookstoves, embedding rigorous carbon accounting, and aligning with external oversight bodies such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). With these technical elements in place, the final critical piece was to elevate social and environmental safeguards at the program level.

Verra CEO Mandy Rambharos said: “As the carbon markets have matured, expectations around integrity, accountability, and community benefits have also risen. VCS Version 5 reflects everything Verra has learned over the last two decades and is a conscious decision to prioritize credible climate benefits and community safeguards because we have seen what happens when projects fall short in this area. Long-term climate impact depends on projects that are durable, credible, and grounded in strong community relationships. In sum, VCS Version 5 ensures that climate benefits are not only measurable but also credible, equitable, and community-centered.”

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Key updates include the following:

Market-leading community safeguards: Stronger protections for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including tools for projects to strengthen their FPIC processes and benefit-sharing mechanisms.

Stronger rights and transparency: Updated rules that define projects’ “right to operate” and new financial disclosure requirements for projects impacting local communities.

New options for durability: Projects can now pilot insurance or fund-based alternatives to the pooled buffer for managing non-permanence risk.

More frequent updates, shorter cycles: Most projects must reassess baselines and adopt updated methodologies every five years to stay aligned with science and technology, ensuring lasting robust quality of these projects and the credits they generate.

Digital systems and new sectors: Required digital submission for eligible projects and expanded scope.

Namati CEO Vivek Maru, who consulted on the program updates, said: “This new version of the Verra standard increases transparency, strengthens communities’ right to free, prior, informed consent, and requires projects to share a proportion of revenue with communities. It’s a major step towards carbon justice.”

GLA Technical Director, Gabriela Rodrigues Eklund, who also advised Verra on parts of the revision, said: “VCS Version 5.0 marks an important advancement for community rights in carbon markets with clearer terms and definitions, and stronger requirements to protect FPIC as well as carbon and land rights, such as a mandatory land and natural resources rights analysis for projects likely to affect these rights. It is encouraging to see this movement in the voluntary carbon market, and we hope that efforts will continue across nature-based markets to protect rights and support community-led climate action.”

VCS Version 5 is available for immediate use, and new projects will be required to apply it from January 1, 2027. Existing projects will transition over time, with specific requirements taking effect at defined milestones based on when projects submit materials to Verra.