The year 2025 was filled with political turbulence and economic uncertainty, but in the middle of that, the climate crisis didn’t pause, and neither did our work.

If anything, this year reinforced why the voluntary carbon market (VCM) exists, and why it remains key to advancing climate action when ambition elsewhere falters. It translates intent into measurable outcomes and drives meaningful impact.

The market continued to move forward. Standards strengthened. Trust deepened. Communities led.

And Verra stayed focused on what matters most: driving high-integrity climate action that delivers real benefits for people and the planet.

Defining Success in 2025

At the end of last year, I wrote that the scaling of the carbon markets depended on four key pillars.

The first pillar was the alignment of the VCM with global frameworks. At Verra, we supported this pillar by strengthening our government engagement strategy through entering new memoranda of understanding (MOUs) and mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) that bring governments and the voluntary market closer. Our alignment with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement through instruments such as the Article 6.2 Crediting Protocol, together with full approval under the CORSIA framework, means Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, originally focused on the VCM, increasingly serves as a foundation and an accelerator for compliance efforts.

The second pillar was collaboration and partnerships. To support this work, Verra made a commitment to technological transformation that was accelerated through partnerships with Hedera and S&P Global Energy. This enhanced our efforts to scale digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) and streamline project registration and verification.

The third pillar was operationalizing quality and integrity. Over this past year, Verra saw several key methodologies approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), which sets the highest bar for integrity in the market. Their approvals included methodologies for improved agricultural land management, cookstoves, afforestation and reforestation (ARR), and improved forest management (IFM)—some of the most impactful interventions for climate and community resilience.

We also continued to invest in increasing efficiency and innovation across our internal processes. Through our risk-based approach (RBA), we’ve already cut registration review times by over 60%. We furthered progress in digitalizing all project-related materials through the Verra Project Hub. We also recently began piloting a prioritization process to create new avenues for getting projects through the review system faster, while maintaining the same high bar on integrity.

We released the first set of jurisdictional risk maps for our REDD methodology (VM0048), marking a key step forward in ensuring market-based approaches can continue to drive finance to forest conservation. We are also continuously working on improving our development process for these maps, including through working more seamlessly and in a more integrative, collaborative way with data service providers.

And the final pillar was simultaneously solving several crises: decarbonization, environmental health, and socio-economic growth. Our recent launch of version 5 of the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, the most comprehensive update to our flagship standard to date, marked another milestone in this effort. The new version embeds stronger social and environmental safeguards and provides a clearer pathway to high-quality crediting. When we know better, we do better.

Further, we knew that financial resilience would be key to sustaining our impact. Accordingly, we undertook a comprehensive financial reset in 2025, refocusing our priorities and ensuring resources were aligned with where they could deliver the greatest value. We strengthened our financial foundation and will share the fully audited numbers in due course. The results will speak for themselves: the strategy worked, and Verra is now on stable ground and well positioned to deliver on its mission.

Looking Ahead

Next year, we must deliver and scale. The systems we’ve built, and the lessons we’ve learned, must work to transform the market into one that’s not only trusted, but truly transformational and capable of delivering lasting impact.

To reach these goals, our priorities are clear.

Verra’s credibility stems from two decades of lived experience and a commitment to evolving the standards programs, methodologies, and tools that underpin climate finance today.

In 2026, we will do the following:

  • Fully build out VCS Version 5, our most ambitious version of that program to date, embedding enhanced social safeguards and clearer pathways to crediting quality.
  • Expand support for project proponents using high-volume methodologies while streamlining project reviews to better meet demand.
  • Launch our Scope 3 Standard Program, which will help companies address the largest and most complex part of their emissions footprint with credibility and ambition.
  • Continue to lead on developing high-integrity methodologies that deliver real outcomes for climate and communities.

Carbon markets cannot scale in silos. Voluntary and compliance markets are becoming increasingly integrated, and Verra’s VCS Program is key to building bridges between them—so much so that I’ve said on multiple occasions this year that we need to drop the “V” in the VCM and treat all carbon markets as a whole.

In 2026, we will do the following:

  • Continue aligning with global regulatory market frameworks, seeking standardization where possible to reduce fragmentation. This also includes advocating for a unified global approach to carbon finance, because trust comes from consistency, and consistency comes from shared rules.
  • Expand our government engagement strategy, deepening collaboration through dialogue and mutual capacity building, and continuing to employ tools such as MOUs and MRAs to align national systems with the global market. This also includes deployment of our good-to-go infrastructure for supporting the implementation of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement and CORSIA.

We know that this market must move faster.

In 2026, we will do the following:

  • Launch our next-generation registry in partnership with S&P Global Energy: a platform built for transparency, traceability, and scale.
  • Deepen digitalization through the Verra Project Hub, expanding digital methodologies and further streamlining project-related processes.
  • Scale digital MRV to simplify verification, reduce bottlenecks, and improve data accuracy.

This is about making the processes that underpin climate action easier, faster, and more accessible for everyone.

Markets evolve. So must we.

In 2026, we will do the following:

  • Expand our risk-based project review approach, which has already cut registration times by over 60%.
  • Pilot new prioritization processes models to accelerate project throughput without compromising integrity.
  • Advance our fundraising and partnership strategy to invest in the infrastructure, systems, and people required to scale the market for meaningful impact.
  • Deepen stakeholder engagement, because communication and support are as critical as systems and science.

The Work in Front of Us

For 2026, we have the tools. And we have the momentum.

But most importantly, we have a responsibility to the people and the planet, and we have one another to fulfill it.

We must deliver fast, yes, but also fairly. And that means ensuring climate finance doesn’t just count emission reductions but delivers lasting benefits where they’re needed most.

We can't do it alone; we provide the rules and requirements and methodologies, but it takes others to diligently implement them to truly advance the climate action that our programs make possible.

As this year draws to a close, I want to thank our project partners, stakeholders, and communities for their collaboration and trust.

Wishing you a season of rest, reflection, and renewed purpose.

Mandy Rambharos is the chief executive officer of Verra.