CarbonOffsetRegistry — Carbon-Credit Hygiene + Vintage Validation
20 carbon-credit purchases across 6 registries (Verra VCS, Gold Standard, ACR, CAR, Puro.earth, Climeworks, BioCarbon). Per credit: vintage year, project type, methodology, additionality, permanence, leakage, retirement status, ICVCM CCP screen. Surfaces 3 credits past quality screens (REDD+ avoided-deforestation over-crediting + low-additionality wind farm) + 1 vintage-tournament double-claim risk.
What it is
The shape behind every defensible carbon-neutral / Net-Zero claim. Most companies buy credits, retire them in a registry, and call it done. The Guardian / FT / Bloomberg / EU CSRD audit cycle has shown that a meaningful share of credits don’t pass the modern quality screens. CarbonOffsetRegistry is the gate that flags them before they’re claimed.
What’s in it
- 20 credit purchases across the realistic mix of registries:
- Engineered removals (highest quality) — Climeworks DAC + storage (IS), Charm Industrial bio-oil (US), Mati Carbon ERW (IN). Permanence 1000y+. Premium price. Pass ICVCM CCP screens.
- Nature-based removals — biochar (KE), mangrove restoration (CO), reforestation (BR Atlantic / US Pacific NW / KE / CO / PT). Solid but lower permanence (100-500y).
- Reductions — cookstoves (KE), composting (US), methane capture (US landfill).
- Avoided emissions (lower quality) — REDD+ Cordillera Azul (PE), REDD+ Kasigau Corridor (KE), REDD+ DR Congo. Disputed additionality / over-crediting concerns.
- 5-axis quality screen per credit:
- Additionality (high / medium / low / disputed) — would the reduction have happened without the project?
- Permanence (1000y+ / 100-500y / 10-30y / reversible) — how long is the carbon sequestered?
- Leakage (none / low / medium / high) — does the project displace emissions elsewhere?
- Vintage — newer = better; >3 years = stale
- ICVCM CCP screen — pass / fail aggregate
- Worst-offender findings:
- CO-009 — wind farm (IN) vintage 2022, low-additionality (operational since 2014). Would not pass modern screen.
- CO-010 + CO-015 + CO-020 — REDD+ projects with disputed additionality (over-crediting baselines per The Guardian Jan 2023 + others). Top up with engineered.
- CO-019 — vintage-tournament risk (same project also being claimed under another retired credit on Toucan).
- Per-credit methodology + verifier explicit (VCS VM0033, Puro Bio-Oil v2, GS Cookstoves v3, etc.).
Why this shape
ICVCM Core Carbon Principles 2023 introduced the modern quality bar. SBTi Beyond-Value-Chain-Mitigation guidance lets companies use credits to claim BVCM contributions but with quality gates. VCMI Claims Code governs how credits can be claimed. FTC Green Guides + EU Green Claims Directive 2024 prohibit unsubstantiated environmental claims. CarbonOffsetRegistry prototypes the gate that turns “we bought offsets” into “we bought CCP-aligned credits with documented additionality, permanence, and no double-counting.”
How it ships
Single HTML file, ~18KB. Zero dependencies. 20 credits × 5-axis quality screen + ICVCM pass/fail in 200 lines of vanilla JavaScript.