MCC-800 Registry Operations — Amendment 1: incorporation of the Claims and Use of Credits Policy and its designation as MCC-600 (v1.1 → v1.2)

Instrument: Amendment to MCC-800 Registry Operations Standard v1.1 (Tier 3; Governing Board decision with 30 days' public consultation, MCC-001 cl. 0081 and MCC-800 Art. 112), with a consequential amendment to MCC-100 Programme Standard v2.2 cl. 0233 and editorial corrections to MCC-850 v1.2 Status: v0.1 DRAFT 31 August 2026 — NOT ADOPTED. Put to 30 days' public consultation on 31 August 2026 by the programme administration. Adoption is a separate Governing Board decision after the consultation closes. Basis: Standards audit of 31 August 2026 (findings F1–F3); MCC-100 v2.2 cl. 0231; Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1 (ADOPTED, FD-2026-08-24); MCC-800 v1.1 Art. 61 and 112–113

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Background

The standards audit of 31 August 2026 recorded three related findings.

F1. The programme's claim-language rules — the prohibition of offsetting, carbon- or climate-neutrality, net-zero and emission-reduction claims made on the basis of MCC credits, and the conditions for contribution-first claim language — live in the Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1 (§4.1–4.2). MCC-800, the standard that governs the registry surfaces on which retirement claims are actually recorded and displayed, references the Buffer Pool Management Policy, the Corresponding Adjustment and Double Counting Prevention Policy and the MCC Privacy Policy, but never incorporates the Claims Policy. Public platform surfaces cited "MCC-800" as the authority for the prohibition; those citations were corrected to the Claims Policy on 31 August 2026.

F2. MCC-100 v2.2 cl. 0231 provides: "The MCC Claims and Disclosure Code (MCC-600) shall specify all rules governing claims discipline and substantiation requirements." No document carrying the code MCC-600 has ever been issued. The Claims and Use of Credits Policy is that document in substance.

F3. Until 31 August 2026 the claim-language prohibition was enforced only in the client-side retirement form. A database-level trigger (enforce_claim_language) now rejects prohibited claim language on retirement records at the data layer, regardless of the path by which a record is written. The platform is the instrument and the standard is the authority; the authority must state the rule.

Amendments

A1.1 — Designation of MCC-600. The Claims and Use of Credits Policy v1.1 (ADOPTED, FD-2026-08-24) is designated MCC-600 in the MCC document series, answering the description "MCC Claims and Disclosure Code" in MCC-100 cl. 0231. The designation changes no text of the policy. From the next revision of the policy, the cover shall carry the code MCC-600; until then the designation attaches by this Amendment. References in MCC-100 cl. 0231, and in any other programme document, to "MCC-600" or to the "MCC Claims and Disclosure Code" are read as references to the policy as designated.

A1.2 — New Article 49.1 (Section 6.3, Credit Retirement). The following Article is inserted after Article 49:

Article 49.1. The retirement purpose, beneficiary statement and any claim text recorded in the registry, and the wording of retirement certificates, shall comply with MCC-600 (Claims and Use of Credits Policy). The registry shall reject, at the data layer, any retirement record whose text asserts offsetting, carbon or climate neutrality, net zero, or emission reductions on the basis of the credits retired (MCC-600 §4.1). Contribution-first claim language meeting the conditions of MCC-600 §4.2 is permitted. Rejection under this Article is a validation outcome, not an administrative decision, and carries no appeal; the Account Holder may resubmit with conforming text.

A1.3 — Article 61 (CA status on certificates). The following sentence is added at the end of Article 61: "The form of any voluntary market claim is governed by MCC-600."

A1.4 — Consequential amendment: MCC-100 v2.2 cl. 0233(a). Current text:

(a) 'This credit represents one tonne of CO2 equivalent reduction/removal';

is replaced by:

(a) for credits quantified in tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MCC-CC, and the carbon component of MCC-HYB): 'This credit represents one tonne of CO2 equivalent reduction/removal'; for MCC-MCU credits: a factual statement of the unit's quantification basis as defined by the approved methodology (for MCC-M008: 'This credit represents 100 kg of recovered and documented fishing gear'), an MCC-MCU carrying no climate claim (MCC-200 v2.1 cl. 0018–0022);

The audit found that cl. 0233(a) as drafted presumes tCO2e quantification, which does not fit MCC-MCU units (FD-2026-08-24 item D6: 1 MCU = 100 kg of recovered and documented gear under MCC-M008).

A1.5 — Editorial corrections to MCC-850 v1.2 (no rule change; §7 light path of the Rule Change Procedure). The status line and the version-history entry describing Amendment 1 in MCC-850 v1.2 read "MCC-400 Section 14"; the corrections table adopted with MCC-400 Addendum 1 (decision D-2026-08-11) renumbered the material to Section 18, and the operative text of Article 28 already uses Section 18. The two narrative occurrences are corrected to "Section 18" with a change-log line. No notice period is required for editorial corrections; they are recorded here for transparency.

Impact

On the platform. None to build. The data-layer enforcement required by Article 49.1 is in production (trigger enforce_claim_language on the retirements table, applied and tested 31 August 2026), and the public surfaces already cite the Claims Policy. This Amendment states in the standard the rule the registry already applies.

On other documents. MCC-100 cl. 0231 becomes accurate by the designation in A1.1; cl. 0232 and 0234–0235 are unaffected. The Claims and Use of Credits Policy text is unchanged. MCC-800 becomes v1.2 on adoption; MCC-100 incorporates A1.4 at its next version bump (v2.2 → v2.3 is already proposed by MCC-100 Amendment 2, in consultation to 26 September 2026; A1.4 can be consolidated into that instrument at adoption if the Board prefers a single MCC-100 version step).

On registered projects and units. None. No retirements have been recorded to date; the register's only project (MCC-2026-0001) is at SUBMITTED.

Entry into force

Date fixed at adoption. Per MCC-800 Art. 113, the effective date shall be no earlier than 60 days after Governing Board approval. The prohibition itself binds today through the Claims and Use of Credits Policy §4 and is enforced in the registry; the interval affects only the standard's text, not the rule's operation.

Questions put to consultation

1. Should the Claims and Use of Credits Policy be reissued as "MCC-600 Claims and Disclosure Code v1.2" at its scheduled review (23 September 2026), or continue under its current title with the MCC-600 designation attaching by this Amendment?
2. Should Article 49.1 enumerate the prohibited terms in the standard (as drafted), or incorporate MCC-600 §4.1 dynamically so that a future policy revision needs no MCC-800 amendment?
3. Is the resubmission path in Article 49.1 (validation outcome, no appeal) the right treatment, or should repeated rejections escalate to the Registry Manager?
4. Should A1.4 be adopted here as a consequential amendment or folded into MCC-100 Amendment 2 (v2.2 → v2.3)?

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Prepared by the programme administration, 31 August 2026, from the standards audit of the same date. Published with its SHA-256 on /consultations; every comment receives a written response before closing.