Which carbon credits are real?
CarbonDecode rates every project in the voluntary carbon market on a transparent, audit-ready integrity scale, then reads the documents, the news, and the satellites to back the rating up.
11,521 projects rated · 78.4% investment-grade
Market is mostly junk.
Roughly 84% of voluntary carbon credits are high-risk, and only about 8% carry an ICVCM Core Carbon Principles label. Investment-grade credits trade at a large premium to the rest.
Buyers, brokers, auditors, and (under the EU’s Empowering Consumers Directive) marketers now need defensible, auditable evidence that a credit represents a real tonne. CarbonDecode is that evidence: a rating you can defend line-by-line, plus the primary documents, news, and Earth-observation behind it.
Distribution of ratings
The State of Carbon-Credit Integrity
We rated every project in the voluntary carbon market. 78.4% clear the investment-grade bar — but almost none are excellent, and the junk is oversized.
One rating.
Four kinds of evidence.
CCP-aligned integrity score
A 0–100 composite and AAA–D grade across six CCP dimensions. Every point traces to a documented rule, defensible.
AI analyst, cited
Live research surfaces controversies, registry holds, and ratings-agency downgrades, each with a dated source.
Reads the actual PDD
Locates and reads the Project Design Document and verification reports, then tests the additionality argument and baseline against the methodology.
Satellite & MRV review
Forest-loss reversals and emissions anomalies from open satellite data for the project area.
Monitor your holdings
Save or upload a portfolio of credits and get an exposure-weighted risk view, what’s below grade, what carries critical flags.
Data API + MCP
Query data programmatically, or plug it straight into Claude and ChatGPT via the Model Context Protocol.
It flags what blew up.
These large projects scored below investment grade from public data alone, including names that later became carbon-market scandals.
| Grade | Score | Project | Type | Country | Issued |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 19 | Merit Energy Geo-Seq Carbon Capture & Enhanced Oil Recovery · United States | Carbon Capture & Enhanced Oil Recovery | United States | 7.3M |
| C | 19 | North Country LFG Landfill Methane · United States | Landfill Methane | United States | 1.6M |
| C | 19 | Cumberland Forest Highlands IFM Improved Forest Management · United States | Improved Forest Management | United States | 3.2M |
| C | 19 | White Mountain Apache Tribe Carbon Project II Improved Forest Management · United States | Improved Forest Management | United States | 5.6M |
| C | 19 | Finite Carbon - Passamaquoddy Tribe IFM Improved Forest Management · United States | Improved Forest Management | United States | 4.1M |
| C | 19 | Forest Carbon Partners - Mescalero Apache Tribe Improved Forest Management Project Improved Forest Management · United States | Improved Forest Management | United States | 3.9M |
Rate with conviction.
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