The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has approved Verra's carbon capture and storage (CCS) methodology under its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs), clearing one of the market's most technically demanding technology frameworks for CCP-labelled credits.

The approval covers VM0049 and its accompanying modules, which establish procedures for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and carbon dioxide removals (CDR) from projects that capture CO2 and store it permanently in geological formations. Verra said the approval strengthens the credibility of credits generated by projects using the methodology.

The decision matters for buyers and developers because it extends CCP eligibility — the market's main integrity screening mechanism — beyond the nature-based and renewable energy categories that dominate Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) program. The VCS portfolio already holds CCP-approved methodologies for forestry, agriculture, biochar, methane and renewable energy. VM0049 is the technology-based addition.

Modular structure across the capture chain

VM0049 covers the full project chain: carbon capture, CO2 transportation and geological storage. Its modular design lets developers combine the components their specific configuration requires — a DAC facility with its own storage site, or a BECCS plant using shared pipeline infrastructure, for example. The framework can expand as projects scale, share infrastructure or adopt new technologies.

The ICVCM approval covers modules for direct air capture (DAC), CO2 transportation, CO2 storage and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). That scope positions the methodology as a single accounting framework across the main engineered removal pathways currently competing for offtake in the voluntary market.

The methodology also sets a specific requirement on project power supply. Projects claiming renewable electricity must demonstrate that the power comes from newly developed renewable sources dedicated to the CCS project — not from existing renewable generation. That additionality test on power inputs is stricter than general grid accounting and directly affects the emissions balances projects can claim.

Active since June 2024

VM0049 has been operational since June 2024 and applies globally to projects involving geological carbon storage. The CCS+ Initiative developed the methodology, together with South Pole Carbon Asset Management and Perspectives Climate Group, with support from Verra.

The approval lands as the ICVCM pushes CCP coverage across major standards. The council has recently cleared BioCarbon Standard, Cercarbono and Plan Vivo, pushing CCP coverage past 95% of the voluntary market by volume.

"Carbon capture and storage is one of the hardest, most technically demanding technologies in the market, and it has to be done right," Verra Chief Executive Mandy Rambharos said. She framed the ICVCM approval as a confidence-building step for VCS projects and the credits they generate.

What determines what happens next

The milestone to watch is issuance: whether VM0049-based projects actually register, validate and deliver CCP-labelled CDR credits under the modular framework, and whether buyers reward those credits with the price premiums that CCP approval is meant to unlock. Each registered DAC, BECCS and storage project using the methodology will now test whether the market accepts engineered removals held to the renewable-power additionality requirements the framework imposes.