About Us - Frequently Asked Questions

General Registry Questions

  1. Who is The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS)?

    The VCS sets the standard by which GHG emission reductions are calculated for projects. Visit the Verified Carbon Standard Association website at http://www.v-c-s.org for more information.

  2. Can you highlight why we should use the NYSE Blue VCS Registry?

    The NYSE Blue VCS Registry is powered by the largest, most widely accepted, and technically advanced environmental infrastructure in the world. Developed with over a decade of experience in environmental markets, NYSE Blue market solutions have more than 2 billion environmental credits under management.

    NYSE Blue registry clients handle more than 50% of the worldwide market for offset credits, so NYSE Blue VCS Registry clients can be confident in having the most sought after and trusted platform. Our Registry infrastructure powers the registries for all leading standards in the voluntary carbon markets including VCS, Gold Standard, and the Climate Action Reserve.

    More than 1200 companies across the US and internationally rely on NYSE Blue market infrastructure solutions for integrity in environmental markets. The NYSE Blue VCS Registry provides the greatest transparency, accountability and protection available. View a public listing of our clients.

  3. How do organizations benefit from using the NYSE Blue VCS Registry?

    The Registry provides a trusted transaction platform for all market participants with benefits that include:

    Project Proponents
    Access additional revenue streams through transactions and create, manage and track VCUs with an easy to use, web-based platform.
    Retailers/Brokers
    Easily manage portfolio transactions; track and leverage a wide range of quality, international project offsets for your customers
    Corporations
    Address climate change initiatives with a high quality, fully verified offset program and leverage this activity for corporate communication. At the same time, benefit from a range of reports and a full audit trail accepted by governments and organizations worldwide.
    Financial Services
    Access the rapidly growing network of greenhouse gas reduction Project Owners, project developers, and corporate buyers to facilitate investment in high-quality projects that may realize a premium in the marketplace.
  4. How does the NYSE Blue VCS Registry work?

    Project Proponents will register for an account with the Registry and upon account approval will be able to submit their project data online for review and verification. Once a project passes review, validation, and verification, the Registry Administrator will submit the project to the centralized VCS Project Database to ensure the Project is unique among the VCS Registries. Upon such checks, the Registry Administrator will post the project documents and emissions data to the Project Database and thus receive unique serial numbers for the VCUs to be issued on the Registry. The Registry Administrator will issue the VCUs into the Project Proponent's account, once the Project Proponent submits the Registry VCU Issuance Fee and the VCSA Levy Fee.

    Once the credits are deposited into the Project Proponents account, they are then available for future transfer to other Account Holders within the Registry. The Registry will also provide Account Holders the ability to retire VCUs and provide public reports indicating VCU status. See more detail regarding the project registration and issuance process here.

  5. What information is available to the public?

    The Registry lists public reports showing the following: a directory of organizations using the Registry, a list of VCS registered projects, a list of all VCUs Issued and a list of all VCUs Retired. View the NYSE Blue VCS Registry public reports.

  6. It looks like there are multiple voluntary carbon standards and registries - why choose one standard over another?

    Primary drivers for market participants in deciding to choose a particular voluntary standard can include the project types, protocols, geographies, and specific methodologies that are associated with that particular standard. The market value of offset credits also varies across standards. A Project Developer must review each of the standards to determine which one to use toward validation and verification. NYSE Blue provides market solutions that power the most widely used international standards including the Gold Standard, the Climate Action Reserve, and the VCS.

  7. Must retirement account information be public?

    The retirement of specific VCUs must be made public for program transparency. However, making public the account information associated with the retirement of VCUs is an option for Registry Account Holders.

  8. Is it possible to buy VCUs on the NYSE Blue VCS Registry?

    Yes, the Registry may be used to find and track available project offset credits and have those transferred to the purchaser’s account. The actual financial transaction is conducted outside the Registry through a bilateral relationship or other vehicle such as an exchange. Credits available for purchase can be found on the Bulletin Board.

Account Opening Questions

  1. How do I become an Account Holder?

    The registration process begins by filling out the online account registration form.

  2. What are the fees to join the Registry?

    Download the Fee Schedule. This fee schedule does not include any fees which can be assessed by other VCS Registries for inter-registry transfers. Please contact the other VCS Registries for details regarding their transaction costs.

  3. Is there a way to join all the platforms at once? Is there a single joining fee?

    Because NYSE Blue provides market systems for the Gold Standard, the Climate Action Reserve, the VCS, plus renewable energy markets worldwide, NYSE Blue offers a “single view” for organizations to manage their portfolio of environmental assets in one convenient place. Please visit https://www.emaccount.com for more details on the NYSE Blue Environmental Management Account.

  4. As a Project Consultant, can I open a Project Proponent account to register a project?

    You must be assigned as the Authorized Representative for the project in order to register the project. Otherwise, the account must be opened by the Project Proponent named in the PDD. If there are multiple project proponents, a Communications Agreement is required to indicate which of the project proponents has been authorized to register the project.

    A Project Proponent may decide to open an account and give the account management duties to a project consultant. Please complete the Agency Agreement and provide this to the NYSE Blue VCS Registry Administrator. Download the Agency Agreement.

  5. Do I need an Account to register a Project?

    Yes, in order to register a project, you must register for a project proponent account.

  6. If I plan to register multiple projects, do I need an account for each project?

    Under your Project Proponent account, you can register more than one project as long as you are the Project Proponent or Authorized Representative or have Proof of Right to all the emission reductions from the project.

Project Registration Questions

  1. Who can register a project with the NYSE Blue VCS Registry?

    The only entity which may initiate the Project Registration Process is the Project Proponent. The Project Proponent may or may not be the Project Owner, however. If it is not the Project Owner, a Proof of Right must be submitted by the Account Holder.

    Project Owner is defined as the Project Proponent stated in the Project Description and validated by the Validator as having ownership of the Project and original right to the Project’s Emission Reductions.

    The Project Proponent is defined as the Project Owner or an entity to which the Project Owner has assigned sole right to the Emission Reductions for the entire Project Crediting Period. No other entity may initiate the Project Registration Process.

  2. Will it be possible to issue partial vintages of projects - or does one have to issue the entire vintage?

    A Project Proponent must register an entire vintage with the Registry but may elect to partially issue quantities from this vintage from time to time. The VCUs will be deposited into the Project Proponents account for transfer to buyers within the Registry or to another approved VCS Registry.

  3. What documentation is required for Project Registration and VCU Issuance?

    Please see the Register a Project section of our website which walks you through the document requirements and project workflow.

  4. Who are the accredited VCS Validation and Verification Bodies?

    The list of approved VCS Validation and Verification Bodies (VVBs) can be found on the VCS Project Database website. View the list of VVBs.

  5. How long after the Project Proponent submits all documents for Verification will the issuance of VCUs take place?

    Assuming that all required documents and information have been submitted, and relevant issuance fees have been paid, the issuance of VCUs should occur within a few business days.

  6. Can a project be registered on the NYSE Blue VCS Registry, the Climate Action Reserve, and the Gold Standard Registry at the same time?

    Yes, the same project may be registered in both registries. However, credits may only be issued in one registry for any single monitoring period. The Project Proponent is responsible for notifying the VCS when a project is registered with another program.

  7. How do we find out what types of projects qualify for the VCS and VCU issuance?

    The VCS Association site provides some high-level information on project types and accredited programs at http://www.v-c-s.org/documents.html and http://www.v-c-s.org/programs.html

    In general, the VCS standard follows the project scopes and protocols defined by the UNFCCC, which has a very comprehensive list of accepted project types and methodologies. UFCCC information is available at http://www.v-c-s.org/methodologies.html and http://cdm.unfccc.int/DOE/scopes.html