Four projects from Ukraine have been added to the Verra registry, one of the world’s largest carbon credit systems. In theory, Verra is supposed to ensure that such projects do not constitute greenwashing. However, activists have found that the information is either unavailable or shows clear signs of breaching the system’s rules.
This was reported by the civil society initiative ‘Teren’.
From fakes to outright rule-breaking
These carbon projects have not yet been finally approved, but if fully verified, the companies will be able to receive money for reducing CO2 emissions. So what are they looking to profit from in Ukraine?
One of the projects is aimed at improving forest management. However, Teren claims that it is entirely bogus. What is more, apart from activists, the state-owned enterprise “Forests of Ukraine” also wrote about this. Yet two years have passed since the expose, and Verra has still not removed the dubious initiative from the register.
Three further projects involve the ecological management of fields in accordance with the VM0042 standard. This involves shallower ploughing, a different method of applying fertiliser, and the planting of other types of crops.
In general, the Verra standard for such fields has a number of fairly strict requirements. One of them is that the field must have been created without the destruction of natural ecosystems, such as forests, wetlands or pastures, over the last ten years.
As it turned out, it is practically impossible to verify whether the registered projects meet the company’s global standards. At least two of the three ‘field’ projects lack coordinates. Teren tried to find out the details and wrote letters to Verra and the developer firms, but never received a reply.
The only project that can be analysed was proposed by the Kernel agricultural holding. Activists immediately discovered that one of the plots submitted to the register was still a pasture as recently as 2019.
“We are awaiting a response from Kernel. In our opinion, carbon credits should not be issued for this project without adjustments. Yet, we can already conclude that Verra is very similar to greenwashing. Therefore, we advise businesses that care about their reputation to look for alternative carbon credit standards,” the organization emphasizes.
EcoPolitic reported earlier that the project from Kernel still has to undergo an international audit for compliance with Verra’s standards. If successful, the company will be able to sell carbon certificates for sequestered carbon. One certificate corresponds to 1 t of sequestered CO2 and could be worth $15–30.
Carbon credits are a compromise option for major companies that cannot or do not want to make their production processes less harmful to the environment. Essentially, they can invest in carbon sequestration elsewhere instead of decarbonizing their own assets.
Global corporations are currently making active use of this. In particular, Google planned to invest in a start-up working to restore tropical forests in Brazil in order to offset 200,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
On the Patch platform alone, during 10 months of 2025, carbon credits for 25 million t of CO2 were sold.
To achieve emission reduction targets, the EU allowed the use of carbon credits. However, their volume must not exceed 5% of total emissions.
