MCC-600 — Claims Code

Document control

Field	Value
Document code	MCC-600
Title	Claims Code
Version	1.0-draft
Status	DRAFT — FOR CONSULTATION
Date of this draft	3 September 2026
Tier	Tier 3 (Document Hierarchy & Precedence Register, per FD-2026-09-03 item D5)
Effective date	None. This document is not in force. It takes effect only on approval under clause 16.2. Its publication in force is a hard gate before any public sale or retirement of any MCC unit (MCC-001 clause 11.1; FD-2026-09-03 item D7).
Document owner	Programme Administrator (transitional, until a Secretariat is staffed — FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1, C3)
Approved by	Not approved. Prepared for public consultation.
Decision basis	Founder Decision FD-2026-09-03 item D7 (Claims Matrix and MCC-600 precondition), within the set FD-2026-09-03 items D1–D8 (adopted 3 September 2026 in the programme working channel; to be tabled for ratification by the Governing Board). FD-2026-09-03 is recorded in the decision register as attested by the founder on 7 September 2026; no executed copy has been filed (the register at /governance/decisions shows its status).
Supersedes	None — new document. No predecessor version of MCC-600 has ever existed. On entry into force, this Code consolidates the claims subject matter previously scattered across the corpus (MCC-100 v2.2 Sections 12/14 including cl. 0123–0124, 0211 and 0228–0235; MCC-800 v1.1 Art. 61 certificate claim wording), whose superseding is proposed in MCC-100 v3.0-draft and MCC-800 v2.0-draft, consultation drafts of the rewritten suite; the document register records MCC-100 v2.2 and MCC-800 v1.1 as in force until those drafts are adopted (FD-2026-09-07 item A8: scheduled, not executed). Claims are governed meanwhile by the Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1, adopted under FD-2026-08-24 and recorded in the document register as in force, whose register entry names this draft as its successor draft. A separate proposal to designate that Policy itself as MCC-600 (MCC-800 Amendment 1) is the subject of a consultation that the consultation register records as stayed; its resumption or withdrawal is reserved to the Governing Board (FD-2026-09-04 item 6, recorded in the decision register as attested by the founder, with no executed copy filed).
Language convention	British English; RFC-style normative verbs (SHALL/MUST = mandatory; SHOULD = recommended, deviation to be documented; MAY = optional). Canonical registry enumeration values, control-table field names and status labels are quoted verbatim from the adopted control tables and retain their spelling (for example "AUTHORIZED", "authorization status").
Classification	Public — consultation draft
Consultation period	30 days (FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1, C4), from the opening recorded on the consultation register (FD-2026-09-04 item 2; FD-2026-10-01 item 5)

New-document declaration

MCC-600 is referenced throughout the predecessor corpus (notably MCC-100 v2.2 cl. 0231) but was never drafted: the independent audit of 3 September 2026 records it as a missing normative dependency (SYS-05) and the absence of claims control as a CRITICAL programme-wide finding (SYS-08; 100-09). This v1.0-draft is the first text of MCC-600. No earlier version, approval, consultation or operational history of this document exists, and none is implied.

Change history

Version	Date	Change	Instrument
1.0-draft	3 September 2026	First text. Drafted from FD-2026-09-03 item D7 (Claims Matrix adopted verbatim from audit §4.7; MCC-600 publication a hard gate before public sale or retirement), the canonical control tables 5 and 6, audit findings SYS-07/SYS-08/SYS-14 and §8 prohibitions, and the Phase 0 public-claims containment sweep of 3 September 2026	FD-2026-09-03 item D7

NOTE (non-normative). This document is issued for public consultation. Nothing in it asserts that any approval, accreditation, eligibility, registration, issuance, sale, retirement or operational history exists unless a linked record is identified in the MCC Evidence Register. Points the Programme has not decided, or on which it proposes a rule for comment, are listed under Consultation questions below and marked in the text.

NOTE (non-normative) — external design reference. The demand-side rules in this Code (in particular Sections 3, 7 and 13) were drafted with reference to publicly available demand-side practice as it stood on 3 September 2026, including the VCMI Claims Code of Practice v3.1 and Monitoring, Reporting and Assurance Framework v1.4 (superseded on 23 September 2026 by v3.2 and v1.5 respectively), as design references only (audit §2.3, §10, sources E6–E7). MCC has not been assessed under, endorsed by, or found aligned or compliant with VCMI or any other external claims framework, and this Code makes no such claim.

Consultation questions

Each point below is open for comment. A proposal is the administration's proposal, put to consultation under founder direction FD-2026-10-01; it is not a rule in force. The suite is to be adopted as one instrument once its longest consultation period has closed (FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1, C4). Because it includes the Constitution, whose amendment is within the competence of the constituted Governing Board (FD-2026-08-24 item D11, recorded in the decision register as attested by the founder, with no executed copy filed), each point below is decided by the Governing Board on adoption of the suite; a clause of this text that provides another route for adopting it alone is itself open to comment.

1. Clause 7.5 — buyer segments and claim types for the pilot. Proposed: no proposal is made — the question is which buyer segments the pilot is intended to serve, and which claim types those buyers are expected to make, so that the proportionality of the buyer disclosures in clause 7.5 can be calibrated before adoption. Basis: FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1 (Q11); FDP-2026-001 Q11. Decided by: the Governing Board on adoption of the suite. Comments are invited on the buyer segments and claim types for which the disclosures should be calibrated, and on whether the disclosures required by clause 7.5 are proportionate to them.

2. Clause 7.6 — neutrality-style descriptors for MCC-CC units. Proposed: the prohibition as drafted, without exception: no claim based on MCC-CC units describes any person, product, service, event or supply chain as carbon neutral, climate neutral, net zero, net-zero-enabled or offset, and no MCC unit is described as an offset. The point concerns MCC-CC units; for an MCC-MOU, offset and neutrality claims are excluded by FD-2026-09-03 item D7 (clause 8.3). In the claims instrument in force, the Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1, article 4.2 prohibits a carbon-neutrality claim made without documenting a reduction of at least half of the claimant's own emissions, and a net-zero claim made without a science-based reduction plan and measured progress, and so contemplates each where that evidence exists; the registry's database nevertheless refuses any retirement whose claim text uses carbon-, climate- or greenhouse-gas-neutrality or net-zero wording, citing section 3.1 of that Policy. Basis: the prohibition in clause 7.6 as drafted, as the consultation proposal (FDP-2026-001 Part 3). Decided by: the Governing Board on adoption of the suite. Comments are invited on whether, and under what independently assessed conditions, any neutrality-style descriptor could ever be permitted.

3. Clause 15.4 — period for the first conformity review of live public communications. Proposed: 20 business days from this Code's entry into force, within which the Programme completes and records the review and corrects every non-conforming statement. Basis: the period proposed in this draft, as the consultation proposal (FDP-2026-001 Part 3). Decided by: the Governing Board on adoption of the suite. Comments are invited on whether 20 business days is the right period for a review of that scope.

Table of contents

1. Purpose, scope and application
2. Normative references and definitions
3. General requirements for all claims
4. The Claims Matrix
5. Lifecycle-stage statements
6. Retirement statements and certificates
7. Claims based on MCC-CC units
8. Claims based on MCC-MOU units
9. Statements based on MCC-CB labels
10. Article 6 attribute statements
11. Prohibited wording and representations
12. Programme and participant communications
13. Claim templates and pre-approval
14. Monitoring, enforcement and grievances
15. Transitional provisions
16. Amendments, review and entry into force

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1. Purpose, scope and application

1.1 This Claims Code (MCC-600) SHALL govern every claim and every public communication concerning the MCC Programme, its projects, methodologies, units, labels and attributes.

1.2 This Code is a Tier 3 instrument under the Document Hierarchy & Precedence Register; precedence is governed by MCC-001 Section 2, and this Code SHALL NOT be read as weakening any requirement of MCC-001, MCC-100 or MCC-700.

1.3 This Code SHALL bind:

1.3.1 the Programme itself — every governance body, the Programme Secretariat, and every Programme-controlled channel, including the public website and its metadata, the public registry and its user-interface and API text, certificates, consultations, news, presentations and marketing materials;

1.3.2 every participant, under its participation terms; and

1.3.3 every claimant that acquires, holds or retires an MCC unit or receives a retirement for its benefit, under the registry account terms and retirement terms.

1.4 The Programme SHALL include conformity with this Code as a term of every participation agreement, registry account agreement and retirement transaction.

1.5 Against a person with no contractual relationship to the Programme, the remedies for a non-conforming claim SHALL be limited to public correction, refusal or withdrawal of Programme services, and such legal remedies as are available under applicable law; the Programme SHALL NOT purport to impose sanctions beyond its own participation and services.

1.6 No MCC unit SHALL be publicly marketed, sold or retired before this Code is published and in force (MCC-001 clause 11.1); nothing in this consultation draft creates any such permission.

1.7 References in this Code to "control table 5" and "control table 6" are to the Article 6 Attribute/Status Matrix and the Claims Matrix with its prohibited-wording list in the canonical control tables adopted under FD-2026-09-03.

1.8 A requirement of this Code that depends on a referenced instrument, form, tool or register is ineffective until MCC-001 clause 2.5 is satisfied for that instrument.

2. Normative references and definitions

2.1 The normative verb conventions of MCC-001 clause 3.1 apply; text introduced by "NOTE" is non-normative (MCC-001 clause 3.7).

2.2 Terms with initial capitals have the meanings assigned in the MCC Definitions Register, which is in force (v1.0; FD-2026-08-24 item D12, recorded in the decision register as attested by the founder, with no executed copy filed); where the Definitions Register does not define a term, the interim rule of MCC-001 clause 3.3 applies, and the canonical meanings of retirement, cancellation, listing and registration are those of the canonical terminology adopted under FD-2026-09-03.

2.3 In this Code:

2.3.1 claim means any statement in a public communication that attributes a benefit, outcome, quality, status or attribute to any person, product, service, target, project or unit on the basis of the MCC Programme, a project, a unit, a label or an attribute recorded in the MCC registry;

2.3.2 public communication means any statement made available to any person other than the maker's own personnel and professional advisers, in any medium, including websites, page metadata, search and social-media snippets, registry user-interface and API text, certificates, marketing materials, investor materials, term sheets, presentations, press releases and sponsored content;

2.3.3 claimant means the person making a claim, including the Programme itself, a participant, a buyer or a stated beneficiary of a retirement;

2.3.4 retirement statement means a claim that one or more MCC units have been retired, derived from and referencing the registry retirement record;

2.3.5 contribution claim means a claim that the claimant has financed or supported a verified outcome under the Programme, without asserting that the outcome counterbalances, compensates for or neutralises the claimant's own emissions or impacts;

2.3.6 outcome claim means a factual statement of a specific verified outcome — its metric, quantity, location or project, and period — without attributing counterbalancing, compensation or neutralisation to any person;

2.3.7 compensation-style claim means a claim that retired MCC-CC units counterbalance or compensate a stated quantity of the claimant's own greenhouse-gas emissions;

2.3.8 claim template means standard claim wording pre-approved under Section 13; and

2.3.9 lifecycle stage means a canonical project state under MCC-700 Annex B or a unit state under MCC-800.

2.4 Where this Code and a claim template conflict, this Code prevails.

3. General requirements for all claims

3.1 Every claim SHALL be factually accurate and SHALL NOT be misleading in the context, medium and audience in which it appears.

3.2 Every claim concerning a project, unit, label or attribute SHALL be permitted for the exact lifecycle stage, unit type and authorization status shown in the registry, and SHALL be backed by an identified registry record or Evidence Register record (MCC-001 clause 11.3).

3.3 A claim SHALL be made only on the basis of retired units, evidenced by the retirement record; no claim SHALL be asserted on owned but unretired units (MCC-100 clause 21.7).

3.4 No claim SHALL overstate the quantity, scope, duration, certainty or significance of the underlying record; stated quantities SHALL NOT exceed the recorded quantities and SHALL NOT be rounded upward.

3.5 A claim SHALL NOT omit information whose absence makes the claim misleading, including, where applicable, that no MCC unit has yet been issued, that a unit is a non-carbon outcome unit, or that a unit carries the default status NOT AUTHORIZED FOR ARTICLE 6 / VOLUNTARY USE ONLY.

3.6 Every disclosure this Code requires to accompany a claim SHALL appear in, or immediately adjacent to, the communication carrying the claim, and SHALL NOT be provided only through a link or a separate document.

3.7 A present-tense statement of an operational capability, service or activity (including validation, verification, accreditation, monitoring, issuance, sale or retirement) SHALL be made only where that capability, service or activity currently exists and its evidence is linked in the Evidence Register; otherwise the statement SHALL use future or conditional wording that identifies the unmet preconditions.

3.8 An aggregate figure in a claim (including totals of units issued, retired, projects registered or outcomes verified) SHALL be reconcilable to the public registry, and conflicting figures SHALL NOT be published on different Programme channels.

3.9 No claim SHALL attribute to any external scheme, framework, standard, regulator or body a recognition, role, approval, eligibility or status that that body has not conferred in an evidenced, scope-specific decision.

3.10 Claim wording for MCC units and labels is defined exclusively by this Code and the claim templates under Section 13; a methodology SHALL state claim constraints only, generated from the Claims Matrix, and SHALL NOT define claim wording of its own (MCC-200 clause 7.12).

4. The Claims Matrix

4.1 The Claims Matrix in clause 4.2 is the normative core of this Code: every claim concerning a project, unit, label or Article 6 attribute SHALL correspond to a row of the Matrix and SHALL comply with that row's prohibition/control.

4.2 The Claims Matrix is:

Lifecycle/attribute	Permitted factual statement	Prohibition/control
Project listed	The project is listed under MCC and is under review.	No credit-quality or approval claim
Project registered	The project is registered under [methodology/version].	No issued tonnes implied
MCC-CC issued	[Quantity] MCC-CCs were issued ex post for [vintage].	State methodology, verification, vintage and authorization status
MCC-CC retired	[Quantity] MCC-CCs were retired by/for [beneficiary] on [date].	Claim wording governed by buyer context; no compliance claim unless independently eligible
MCC-MOU retired/claimed	A verified contribution supported [specific marine outcome].	No offsetting, compensation, carbon-neutral or tonne-equivalence language
Article 6 attribute	Authorized for [purpose] by [Party/instrument]; CA evidence status [state].	Do not state Article 6.4 or compliance eligibility unless scope-specific approval exists

NOTE — GENERATED CONTENT. The table in clause 4.2 reproduces verbatim its single source: the Claims Matrix (canonical control table 6, adopted under FD-2026-09-03 item D7 from audit §4.7). On any divergence, the source prevails and this reproduction is corrected; no local variation is permitted.

4.3 A claim concerning a project, unit, label or attribute that does not fall within any row of the Claims Matrix SHALL NOT be made unless it has been pre-approved as a claim template under Section 13 and is consistent with every applicable control of the Matrix and of this Code.

4.4 The bracketed elements of a permitted factual statement SHALL be completed only with values drawn from the corresponding registry record.

5. Lifecycle-stage statements

5.1 A statement of a project's or unit's lifecycle stage SHALL use the canonical state names of MCC-700 Annex B (for projects) and MCC-800 (for units), and a statement of a methodology's status SHALL use the vocabulary of the Methodology Status Register.

5.2 A statement that a project is listed SHALL conform to Claims Matrix row 1 and SHALL NOT carry any credit-quality or approval claim; listing SHALL NOT be represented as registration, approval, validation, verification or issuance (MCC-001 clause 11.6).

5.3 A statement that a project is registered SHALL conform to Claims Matrix row 2, SHALL identify the methodology and version, and SHALL NOT state or imply that any tonne or unit has been issued.

5.4 A statement that MCC-CC units have been issued SHALL be made only ex post, SHALL conform to Claims Matrix row 3, and SHALL carry the disclosures of clause 7.3.

5.5 No statement SHALL state or imply a lifecycle stage later than the stage the registry record shows at the time of the statement.

5.6 A statement of an internal Programme status (including a methodology status or a document status) SHALL quote the register status verbatim, SHALL identify its adoption basis, and SHALL NOT state or imply any external approval, accreditation, eligibility or recognition.

6. Retirement statements and certificates

6.1 A retirement statement SHALL conform to Claims Matrix row 4 (for MCC-CC) or row 5 (for MCC-MOU) and SHALL identify the quantity, unit type, stated beneficiary where disclosed, retirement date and retirement record reference.

6.2 A retirement statement SHALL NOT of itself state or imply Article 6 authorization, a corresponding adjustment, or eligibility under any scheme (MCC-100 clause 21.3).

6.3 The retirement certificate template, and any subsequent change to it, SHALL be pre-approved under Section 13; certificate content SHALL comprise the fields fixed by MCC-100 clause 21.10, and a certificate SHALL contain no eligibility conclusion.

6.4 The public registry entry is the authoritative record of a retirement; a certificate is derivative, and on any divergence the registry record prevails.

6.5 A claim on a retirement SHALL be made only by or for the stated beneficiary of that retirement; no other person SHALL claim the same retirement, and one retirement SHALL NOT support claims by more than one beneficiary.

6.6 Where a retirement is made by an intermediary for a beneficiary, the retirement record SHALL identify the beneficiary before any claim by that beneficiary is made.

7. Claims based on MCC-CC units

7.1 A claim based on MCC-CC units SHALL be made only after the retirement of the units claimed, evidenced by the retirement record.

7.2 The default permitted claim form for retired MCC-CC units is a climate contribution claim: a statement that the claimant financed or supported a stated quantity of verified emission reductions or removals under the Programme, without asserting counterbalancing of the claimant's own emissions.

7.3 Every claim based on MCC-CC units SHALL disclose: the quantity; the vintage; the methodology and version; the verification reference (the VVB verification statement identified in the registry record); the units' authorization status stated per control table 5; and the retirement record reference.

7.4 A compensation-style claim SHALL be made only where all of the following are satisfied:

7.4.1 every unit claimed is a verified MCC-CC, issued ex post under an approved methodology;

7.4.2 every unit claimed has been retired for the claimant or its stated beneficiary;

7.4.3 the buyer disclosures of clause 7.5 are published before or together with the claim;

7.4.4 the claim contains no overstatement: the emissions quantity stated as compensated SHALL NOT exceed the tonnage retired; and

7.4.5 the claim uses a claim template pre-approved under Section 13, or has itself been pre-approved under Section 13.

7.5 A claimant making a compensation-style claim SHALL publicly disclose: the scope and quantity of its own emissions against which the claim is made and the basis of that quantification; a statement that retired credits supplement, and do not replace, the claimant's own emission reductions; the quantity of MCC-CC units retired with their retirement record references; and the disclosures of clause 7.3.

NOTE. Clause 7.5 is drafted with reference to demand-side practice as it stood on 3 September 2026 (audit §10, "credits supplement rather than replace reductions"; design reference only). The intended buyer segments and claim types for the pilot, against which the proportionality of these buyer disclosures is to be calibrated before adoption, are put to consultation without a proposal (FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1, Q11). (Consultation question 1.)

7.6 No claim based on MCC-CC units SHALL describe any person, product, service, event or supply chain as carbon neutral, climate neutral, net zero, net-zero-enabled or offset, and no MCC unit SHALL be described as an offset. Whether, and under what independently assessed conditions, any neutrality-style descriptor could ever be permitted is put to consultation; this draft prohibits them absolutely. (Consultation question 2.)

7.7 No claim SHALL state or imply that an MCC-CC unit is eligible under, satisfies, or may be surrendered against any compliance scheme, carbon tax, CORSIA, emissions trading system or regulatory obligation, unless a scheme-specific approval or eligibility decision covering the programme, unit and vintage scope is linked in the Evidence Register (control table 6, prohibited-wording items 1–3).

7.8 A claim based on MCC-CC units SHALL NOT attribute to the tonne any unquantified biodiversity or other co-benefit; co-benefits SHALL be stated only as MCC-CB label statements under Section 9.

7.9 Where the units claimed carry the default status NOT AUTHORIZED FOR ARTICLE 6 / VOLUNTARY USE ONLY, a compensation-style claim SHALL state that the units are for voluntary use and are not authorized under Article 6.

8. Claims based on MCC-MOU units

8.1 An MCC-MOU SHALL support contribution claims and outcome claims only (MCC-001 clause 11.4).

8.2 An MCC-MOU claim SHALL conform to Claims Matrix row 5 and SHALL identify the specific marine outcome: its outcome metric and quantity, the project or location, and the period.

8.3 No offsetting, offset, compensation, carbon-neutral, climate-neutral, net-zero, net-zero-enabling or tonne-equivalence language, and no CO2e quantity, SHALL be applied to an MCC-MOU or to any claim based on one.

8.4 An MCC-MOU SHALL NOT be described as a carbon credit, a climate credit, an avoided emission, or an instrument that compensates emissions.

8.5 An MCC-MOU claim SHALL NOT state or imply fungibility or equivalence across outcome types, or describe the MOU as a standardised unit of account.

8.6 An informational greenhouse-gas disclosure reported under an MCC-MOU methodology SHALL NOT be used in any claim by any party.

8.7 An MCC-MOU claim SHALL NOT state that the outcome is the unit of account for, is recognised by, or is reportable under any external disclosure framework; it MAY state that the underlying verified outcome data are published and that the claimant may draw on them for its own reporting, provided the claim states that MCC makes no representation of alignment with, or eligibility under, any such framework.

9. Statements based on MCC-CB labels

9.1 An MCC-CB label SHALL support a descriptive claim only, stating the label's scope, indicator and period (FD-2026-09-03 item D1).

9.2 A label statement SHALL identify the specific MCC-CC unit or project record to which the label attaches.

9.3 A label statement SHALL NOT state or imply any quantity of CO2e, and label verification SHALL be cited separately from unit verification (MCC-200 clause 15.6).

9.4 A label SHALL NOT be described as a credit, a unit, or a separately tradable or fungible instrument.

9.5 A sustainable-development statement SHALL be indicator-level, evidence-backed and verified under the applicable methodology's indicator protocol; a generic SDG badge or emphasis claim SHALL NOT be made (MCC-100 clause 15.4; control table 6, prohibited-wording item 13).

10. Article 6 attribute statements

10.1 A statement about a unit's Article 6 status SHALL state only the discrete attribute fields of control table 5, quoting each field's recorded state; where all fields hold their defaults, the only permitted statement is that the unit is NOT AUTHORIZED FOR ARTICLE 6 / VOLUNTARY USE ONLY.

10.2 The permitted factual formulations are those of Claims Matrix row 6: "Authorized for [purpose] by [Party/instrument]" (with the authorization date where recorded), and "CA evidence status: [recorded state]" with the linked document reference.

10.3 No MCC unit SHALL be described as an A6.4ER, an Article 6.4 emission reduction, an Article 6.4 unit, or as convertible into one (FD-2026-09-03 item D3).

10.4 No statement SHALL describe a corresponding adjustment as an action the Programme or its registry performs, supports, executes, applies or confirms; a corresponding adjustment is an accounting action of a participating Party, and the Programme records documentary evidence only.

10.5 No compliance, scheme or programme eligibility SHALL be stated or implied from any Article 6 attribute, including a recorded authorization or recorded corresponding-adjustment evidence; eligibility statements are governed exclusively by clause 7.7.

10.6 The label "CA-Confirmed" SHALL NOT be used; the only permitted affirmative formulation is "CA evidence recorded [document reference]" per control table 5.

10.7 A statement of host-country project approval or non-objection SHALL NOT be represented as, or conflated with, Article 6 authorization.

11. Prohibited wording and representations

11.1 The prohibited-wording list of clause 11.2 binds every claimant and every Programme document, registry text, certificate and marketing material (MCC-001 clause 11.5).

11.2 The following are prohibited in any MCC document, register text, certificate or marketing material unless the stated evidence exists and is linked in the Evidence Register:

1. "Eligible for compliance markets" / "compliance-eligible" — prohibited absent scheme-specific approval evidence.
2. "CORSIA-eligible" / "CORSIA-aligned" — prohibited absent ICAO Council approval for the specified programme/unit/vintage scope.
3. "ICVCM-approved" / "CCP-approved" / "CCP-eligible" — prohibited absent an ICVCM assessment decision.
4. "Article 6.4 unit" / "A6.4ER" / "convertible to A6.4ER" — prohibited absolutely for MCC-issued units.
5. "CA-Confirmed" — prohibited; use "CA evidence recorded [document ref]" only.
6. "Corresponding adjustment applied by MCC at retirement" or any wording implying MCC performs a Party's accounting — prohibited absolutely.
7. "Designed to satisfy [scheme]" / "aligned with [scheme/regulation]" / "compliant with [scheme]" — prohibited without defined scope and cited requirement actually met.
8. "Offset", "compensates", "carbon neutral", "net zero", or any tonne-equivalence language applied to an MCC-MOU — prohibited absolutely.
9. "Avoided emissions" applied to a marine outcome unit — prohibited.
10. "Hybrid credit" — prohibited; the instrument no longer exists.
11. "Approved" / "Active" / "operational" for any methodology or standard without a signed approval decision linked in the Evidence Register — prohibited.
12. "100-year permanence" or any durability claim exceeding the enforceable commitment and funded monitoring/liability period — prohibited.
13. Generic SDG badge claims without indicator protocol and evidence — prohibited.
14. Any statement that listing implies registration, approval, validation, verification or issuance — prohibited.

NOTE — GENERATED CONTENT. Clause 11.2 reproduces the operative wording of its single source: the prohibited-wording list annexed to the Claims Matrix (canonical control table 6, adopted under FD-2026-09-03 item D7; sources SYS-08, audit §1.1 Decision box, §8 Prohibited Editing Behaviour, Appendix A). The source's audit-finding citations in items 7 and 9–14 are omitted here as non-normative apparatus; the operative wording is otherwise verbatim. On any divergence, the source prevails and this reproduction is corrected; no local variation is permitted.

11.3 In addition, and codifying the findings of the Phase 0 public-claims containment sweep of 3 September 2026 as programme rules:

11.3.1 the words "aligned", "alignment", "consistent with" or "compliant with" SHALL NOT be applied to any external standard, framework, scheme or regulation unless the claim names the framework, defines the scope of the asserted conformity, cites the specific requirement met, and links the supporting evidence; an unscoped "technical alignment" statement is prohibited even where accompanied by a disclaimer;

11.3.2 rating or quality-recognition vocabulary — including "investment-grade", "bankable", "premium", or any letter-grade or rating designation — SHALL NOT be applied to any MCC unit, project or programme element absent an actual independent rating or assessment linked in the Evidence Register;

11.3.3 a statement that any external onboarding, listing, partnership, integration or data-sharing relationship is agreed, pending or in progress SHALL be made only where the arrangement is documented and linked in the Evidence Register; and

11.3.4 where a Programme communication references an external benchmark (including ICVCM, VCMI, ISO, IPCC, UNFCCC Article 6, GBF, TNFD, ISSB or CSRD), it SHALL describe the benchmark as a design reference only and SHALL state that no endorsement, accreditation, assessment, eligibility or alignment determination by the issuing body exists, using a formulation pre-approved under Section 13.

11.4 Wording that evades a prohibition of this Section through paraphrase, translation, abbreviation, imagery or implication SHALL be treated as the prohibited wording itself.

12. Programme and participant communications

12.1 The Programme SHALL comply with this Code in every Programme communication to the same extent as any participant, including in website metadata, search and social-media snippets, registry user-interface text, API descriptive text and terms of service.

12.2 The Programme's public claims SHALL be reviewed at least annually and non-conforming claims corrected without delay, per MCC-001 clause 11.7.

12.3 Until the Programme's first credit issuance, every Programme or participant communication marketing future units SHALL state that no MCC unit has yet been issued.

12.4 A participant communication that references the Programme, a project, unit or label SHALL comply with this Code, and each participant SHALL impose the obligations of this Code on its agents, resellers and marketing contractors by contract.

12.5 Marketing materials referencing MCC units SHALL be reviewed against this Code before publication (MCC-100 clause 21.11), under the decision type in MCC-700 Annex A row 15.

12.6 Every published Programme figure (project counts, unit totals, outcome totals) SHALL be generated from the registry as its single source, and the Programme SHALL NOT display inconsistent figures across channels or pages.

12.7 A description of a Programme service SHALL distinguish services currently delivered from services to be offered on stated preconditions; undelivered services SHALL NOT be described in the present tense (clause 3.7).

12.8 Where a communication describes registry functionality for Article 6, it SHALL use the attribute-recording formulation of Section 10 and SHALL NOT use capability formulations such as "corresponding adjustment support".

13. Claim templates and pre-approval

13.1 The Programme SHALL maintain a public register of pre-approved claim templates, comprising at minimum one template per Claims Matrix row, the retirement certificate template, and the benchmark-reference formulation of clause 11.3.4.

13.2 Approval of a claim template, of any amendment to one, and of any claim wording deviating from one, is the decision type in MCC-700 Annex A row 15; no template SHALL take effect before that decision is recorded.

13.3 A claimant using a pre-approved template verbatim, completed only with values drawn from the corresponding registry record, is conformant as to wording; the accuracy of the completed values remains the claimant's responsibility.

13.4 A participant SHALL obtain pre-approval under clause 13.2 before publishing any claim concerning a project, unit or label that deviates materially from a pre-approved template.

13.5 A claimant that is not a participant SHOULD use pre-approved templates; a compensation-style claim by any claimant SHALL use a pre-approved template or be individually pre-approved (clause 7.4.5).

13.6 Every template SHALL carry a version and date, and a superseded template version SHALL NOT be used for new claims after the date its replacement takes effect.

14. Monitoring, enforcement and grievances

14.1 Claims monitoring SHALL be performed by the compliance monitoring function per MCC-100 clause 21.12, covering Programme communications, participant communications and claims tied to retirement records.

14.2 A violation of this Code SHALL be processed under MCC-100 Section 23, with the enforcement decision types and appeal routes fixed in MCC-700 Annex A rows 20 to 26; this Code restates none of them.

14.3 The Programme MAY make the correction or withdrawal of a non-conforming claim a condition of continued registry account or retirement services for the claimant concerned.

14.4 A substantiated claim violation and its correction SHALL be published (MCC-100 clause 21.12).

14.5 Any person MAY raise a concern about a claim, including a claim made by the Programme itself, through the complaints procedure under MCC-700 Section 13 or, for a project-affected person, the grievance channel under MCC-700 Section 14; appealable enforcement decisions carry the appeal routes fixed in MCC-700 Annex A.

14.6 Where a person with no contractual relationship to the Programme makes a false or non-conforming claim referencing MCC, the Programme SHALL publish a correction and MAY pursue available legal remedies, within the limits of clause 1.5.

15. Transitional provisions

15.1 The Programme is in a pre-issuance phase: no MCC unit has been issued, publicly sold or retired, and accordingly no claim based on any MCC unit exists or is permitted for any party. The registry holds no credit unit, credit batch, retirement, unit transfer or claim, and records no fee taken and no commitment made to any project developer (registry measurement of 5 October 2026; Evidence Register ER-2026-001 §§A1, A3; FD-2026-10-01 Schedule 1, Q14). The demonstration cohort archived on 31 August 2026 holds five demonstration retirements, covering fifteen demonstration units in all, and one test transfer; every unit in it carries a serial with the MCC-DEMO- prefix, and demonstration records can never be converted into real units (archive measurement of 5 October 2026; Evidence Register ER-2026-001 §A2; Definitions Register v1.0 §4).

15.2 Until this Code enters into force, claims are governed by the Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1, adopted under FD-2026-08-24 and recorded in the document register as in force; the interim prohibition of MCC-001 clause 11.2 — no offset, compensation, neutrality, compliance or alignment claim for any MCC unit — is proposed in MCC-001 v3.0-draft, a consultation draft of the rewritten suite, and takes effect only with it; and this draft creates no interim permission of any kind.

15.3 On entry into force, this Code SHALL apply immediately to all Programme communications, notwithstanding that no unit-based claim can yet lawfully be made.

15.4 Within 20 business days of entry into force, the Programme SHALL complete and record a conformity review of every live public communication — including the public website and its metadata, registry user-interface and API text, terms of service, presentations, term sheets and templates — correcting every non-conforming statement, including those identified in the Phase 0 public-claims containment sweep of 3 September 2026. (Consultation question 3.) That sweep covered 21 live pages of the public website and graded each finding by severity; its findings were corrected the same day (PR #221, merged 3 September 2026).

15.5 Entry into force of this Code satisfies only the claims precondition of MCC-001 clause 11.1; it does not of itself authorise any marketing, sale or retirement, which remain subject to every other applicable precondition, including methodology approval, VVB accreditation, registration, issuance and registry controls under MCC-100 and MCC-800.

15.6 During the transitional governance period, the powers this Code assigns by reference to MCC-700 Annex A are exercised per MCC-700 Section 23 and logged for ratification.

16. Amendments, review and entry into force

16.1 This Code MAY be amended only through the Tier 3 route of MCC-001 clause 12.3, with the decision taken under MCC-700 Annex A row 2.

16.2 This Code enters into force on approval under clause 16.1's decision route, upon publication of the approved version, with its in-force status shown in the Document Register; the precondition of MCC-001 clause 11.1 is satisfied only from that publication.

16.3 The Programme SHOULD review this Code at least annually against developments in publicly available demand-side claims practice and in applicable consumer-protection and environmental-claims law, as design references only.

16.4 An amendment to control table 5 or control table 6 SHALL be carried into this Code by conforming revision of the generated content under the GENERATED CONTENT notes, following the clause 16.1 route.

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End of MCC-600 v1.0-draft. Status: DRAFT — FOR CONSULTATION. Not in force. FD-2026-09-03 item D7 basis.