Verra, in partnership with an Amazon-led working group, has launched the ABACUS label, a new market label that can be applied to Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) from projects verified to the new Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation (ARR) methodology (VM0047) in Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program. The label is now available on the Verra Registry.
Development of the label was supported by a working group that included representatives from Amazon, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, Pachama, Terra Carbon, Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, SCS Global Services, and University of California, Berkeley.
The ABACUS label identifies carbon credits generated under Verra’s high-integrity ARR methodology that exceed the methodology’s requirements, enabling Verra and stakeholders to test new concepts that further advance credit integrity and quality.
The availability of the ABACUS label will help catalyze the market for such high-integrity greenhouse gas removal credits that qualify for it.
Projects wishing to apply the ABACUS label to their VCUs must go beyond the requirements of Verra’s ARR methodology in the following aspects:
- Dynamic additionality: Building on VM0047, projects must rigorously match and observe control areas to measure project additionality in real time.
- Transparency: Projects must publish all inventory measurements, justify modeling approaches, and report on disturbance monitoring annually in the project area.
- Permanence: Projects must restore to diverse, ecologically appropriate ecosystems, while regularly updating their carbon stock stabilization strategy throughout and after the crediting period.
- Avoided displacement of food production: Projects must effectively maintain or enhance agricultural production in the project area and surrounding landscape
The launch of this label follows a public consultation that ran from November 15, 2023, through January 8, 2024. Verra received 130 comments from 11 stakeholders during the consultation; this feedback is summarized in the ABACUS Label Public Consultation Response document.
As with all its methodologies and standards programs, Verra will continuously update the ABACUS label to ensure that it reflects the best and most recent science and technology. For example, Verra expects to revise the label when revised versions of VM0047 and the associated VMD0054 Module for Estimating Leakage from ARR Activities are published.
Guidance for Applying the ABACUS Label
Verra has released a guidance document titled ABACUS Label Guidance, v1.0, which contains the eligibility criteria, requirements, and procedure for project proponents wishing to apply the ABACUS label to their VCUs.
Please contact programupdates@verra.org with any questions about the ABACUS label.
