Accredited validation and verification bodies

The accreditation programme is open. No application is in assessment. Until a body appears here, the programme cannot validate a project or issue a credit — which is the intended order of events, not a gap in it.

Eligibility: a legal entity in good standing; ISO 14065 accreditation (or an equivalent programme accreditation, which opens a provisional route); marine, coastal or blue-carbon assessment experience; financial independence from developers and buyers; professional indemnity insurance of at least USD 2,000,000 per claim and USD 5,000,000 aggregate (MCC-400 art. 13–16). Process: application through the registry, desk review, individual competence assessment of each Lead Auditor, a witnessed engagement, and a reasoned decision (art. 17–29). Accreditation runs five years with annual performance review; it may be suspended or withdrawn for cause, and every such decision carries a right of appeal under MCC-400 arts. 30 and 76 — which refer it to MCC-700, an instrument that has never entered into force. No appeals instrument has commenced and no appellate body has an appointee, so there is at present no forum. Pending one, MCC undertakes as an administrative commitment to register such an appeal, determine it through a person who took no part in the decision, give written reasons, and not implement the decision under appeal any further until it is heard. No verification body is accredited, so nothing turns on it yet; the Programme records the gap rather than repeating a citation that resolves to nothing.

Standard: MCC-400 VVB Accreditation and Performance Standard v1.1 (Articles 1–92; Addendum 1, which would have added Section 18 on AI-augmented engagements, is stayed under FD-2026-09-03 item D8 and has never been in force). Bodies wishing to apply sign in to the registry as a VVB organisation and use the prescribed form.