Most carbon market decisions are made once and then left alone: a project is checked, credits are bought, a retirement is recorded, a compliance plan is filed. Yet almost everything behind those decisions keeps moving. Methodologies receive new ICVCM decisions, projects change status, host countries sign Article 6 agreements, installations report new verified emissions and regulatory dates arrive. This guide sets out what changes, when, and how to turn those changes into alerts rather than surprises.
- Six kinds of change matter to a carbon position: registry status, issuance and retirements, recorded buyers, methodology decisions, host country Article 6 records and regulatory dates.
- The next two years are dense with deadlines, including the EU ETS surrender on 30 September 2026, CORSIA's second phase from 1 January 2027 and ETS2 from 1 January 2028.
- Monitoring by hand does not scale. The sources publish on different schedules, in different formats and under different identifiers.
- The CRBN.credit Watchlist follows projects, methodologies, countries, organisations, EU ETS installations, calendar topics and saved portfolio screens, and turns each change into a dated alert with its source.
Why a one-time check goes stale
A due diligence file is a photograph. It shows the project, the methodology decision and the country position on the day it was taken, and it is filed. The market does not stop on that day. The registry keeps issuing and retiring credits, the Integrity Council keeps working through its assessment list, countries keep signing bilateral agreements, and regulators keep setting dates. Six months later the photograph and the present can disagree, and the first person to notice is often not the buyer.
The information needed to stay current is published. The difficulty is that it is published by many bodies, each on its own schedule. The Voluntary Carbon Market alone spans seven major registries, and a complete view adds the ICVCM, ICAO, UN Article 6 tracking, the European Commission's Union Registry and the regulators behind each compliance date. Watching all of them for the handful of changes that matter to one portfolio is exactly the kind of work a terminal should do.
The six kinds of change that matter
| Change | Why it matters | Where it is published |
|---|---|---|
| Registry status | A project on hold, withdrawn or with a reversal affects every claim resting on it | The project's registry |
| Issuance and retirements | New supply, and how quickly it is being claimed | The registry, compiled across registries |
| Recorded buyers | Who else has retired from the project, and under what name | Registry retirement records |
| Methodology decision | Whether credits can carry the CCP label | ICVCM |
| Host country Article 6 record | Authorities, bilateral agreements and activities that shape corresponding adjustments | UN Article 6 tracking |
| Regulatory dates | Deadlines, phase changes and rules that change how credits can be used or described | Regulators and standard setters |
Not every change is bad news. A methodology moving to an approved decision can make a holding more valuable, and a host country appointing its Article 6 authority can open a path to authorisation. The point of monitoring is not alarm; it is knowing.
The dates that bind, 2026 to 2028
The next two years carry an unusual concentration of deadlines across compliance and voluntary markets. These are taken from the CRBN.credit Compliance Calendar, where each date carries its status and its legal basis.
| Date | What happens | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 27 September 2026 | EU rules on environmental claims to consumers apply (Directive 2024/825) | Enacted |
| 30 September 2026 | EU ETS surrender deadline for 2025 emissions | Enacted |
| 1 January 2027 | CORSIA second phase begins, covering 2027 to 2029 | Enacted |
| 1 January 2027 | UK CBAM begins; free allocation for EU CBAM sectors falls to 95% | Enacted |
| 1 February 2027 | SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 takes effect | Adopted, not yet applicable |
| 31 March 2027 | EU ETS verified emissions reports for 2026 due | Enacted |
| 2027 | ETS2 allowance auctions begin | Enacted |
| 1 January 2028 | ETS2 starts for buildings and road transport | Enacted |
| 31 January 2028 | CORSIA first phase cancellation deadline | Enacted |
Each calendar topic can be watched. A watched topic sends a reminder 30 days and 7 days before each of its dates, and reports any change of status, for example a proposal that becomes law or a date that moves.
Monitoring EU ETS installations
For compliance buyers, suppliers and lenders, the installation is the unit that matters. The European Commission's Union Registry publishes, for every installation in the EU ETS, its verified emissions and free allocation by year and its compliance status. CRBN.credit carries all 13,065 installations in its EU ETS Installation Explorer, organised by country and sector, with the CBAM phase-out of free allocation set against each CBAM sector.
An installation can be watched like a project. When the Commission publishes new verified emissions or compliance data, the change appears as an alert. The same installations can be added, one by one, to a climate disclosure draft in the terminal, where their verified emissions enter the report as sourced figures with the year and the Union Registry named as the source.
Monitoring who is buying
Registry retirement records name the organisations credits were retired for. Read across every registry, they show which companies are retiring, from which projects, of which types, in which years. CRBN.credit publishes profiles of the organisations with the most retirements on record, each built from those records and linked to the projects behind them.
For a buyer this answers practical questions: which peers are retiring from a project you are considering, how a competitor's retirement mix has shifted between removals and avoidance, and whether a project's buyer list includes names that matter to your stakeholders. An organisation can be watched, and new retirements recorded for it appear as alerts.
Follow what matters to your position.
Projects, methodologies, countries, organisations, installations and calendar topics can all be watched from the terminal.
How the Watchlist works
Almost every page in CRBN.credit that describes something that can change carries a Watch button for signed-in clients: project pages and Project Dossiers, methodology pages, country pages, organisation profiles, EU ETS installations and calendar topics. Portfolio Architect adds one more: a saved screen, so you are told when projects enter or leave a set of criteria you care about.
Behind the button, the terminal takes a fingerprint of each watched item from its sources and compares it with the last one on a regular schedule. Only real changes produce alerts:
- Projects: new issuance, new retirements, a newly recorded buyer, or a change of registry status.
- Methodologies: a change of ICVCM outcome, or a significant change in the number of projects using it.
- Countries: an update to the Article 6 record.
- Organisations: new retirements on record.
- EU ETS installations: new verified emissions or compliance data.
- Calendar topics: a new date, a change of status, and reminders before each date.
Alerts appear in the Watchlist and as a count beside it in the sidebar, each with the date and a link back to the item. The Overview also carries a What changed feed for the whole market over the last 30 days, so the most important changes are visible even for items you have not watched. Watching is part of every account and does not use the monthly allowance.
The design choice behind the Watchlist is restraint. An alert fires only when a source actually publishes something different, and each one says what changed and where it came from. A monitoring tool that cries wolf gets switched off; one that is quiet until it matters gets read.
Reading an alert, and what to do next
An alert is only useful if it leads to a decision. Three common alerts show how a change on the record translates into action on a desk.
A methodology receives an ICVCM decision
Suppose the alert reads that the ICVCM outcome for a methodology you hold has changed to approved. Credits from projects using it can now carry the CCP label, but only where the registry applies it, issuance by issuance. The next steps are to open the methodology page to see which of your projects use it, check in the Registry Lookup which issuances carry the label, and, if you are buying, compare what CCP-labelled supply from the methodology is available. If the outcome is the reverse, an assessment that did not approve the methodology, the steps are the same, but the conversation moves to how existing retirements are described.
A project changes registry status
A status change is the alert that matters most for claims already made. If a project you retired from moves on hold or records a reversal, open its Project Dossier to read the registry record, then open the Retirement Ledger, where the change is already flagged against every retirement from that project. Build a Retirement Evidence Pack so the file shows the position on the day you reviewed it, and check any public statement that names the project in the Green Claims Checker before it is repeated in the next report.
An installation publishes new verified emissions
For a compliance buyer, a supplier programme or a lender, new verified emissions for an installation are the moment to update a position. Compare the new figure with the previous year on the installation page, update the cost of the gap between free allocation and emissions with the current allowance price from the Carbon Valuation Desk, and, if the installation belongs to your own group, refresh the figure in your climate disclosure draft, where it enters as a sourced number with the year and the Union Registry named.
In each case the alert carries the date, the source and a link back to the item, so the person acting on it starts from the published fact rather than a forwarded email.
A monitoring routine for a carbon desk
A simple routine keeps a portfolio current with a few minutes a week.
- Watch every project you hold or have retired from. Use the Watch button on the Project Dossier or project page.
- Watch the methodologies behind your largest positions. A change of ICVCM outcome affects every project using the methodology.
- Watch the host countries of projects where corresponding adjustments or authorisation matter to your use of the credits.
- Watch the calendar topics that bind you: EU ETS, CBAM, CORSIA, SBTi or the green claims rules.
- Save your Portfolio Architect screen so new projects that meet your criteria surface on their own.
- Read the Watchlist once a week, and open anything that changed in the Project Dossier to see it in full.
- Before each reporting cycle, build a Retirement Evidence Pack so the record behind your claims is current on the day you report it.
Related reading. Monitoring starts from a complete check: see carbon credit due diligence in one terminal. When a reporting cycle arrives, see how to prove your carbon credit retirements to an auditor.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I monitor after buying carbon credits?
The project's registry status, new issuance and retirements, new recorded buyers, the ICVCM decision on its methodology, the host country's Article 6 record, and any regulatory date that affects how you can use or describe the credits. For compliance positions, add EU ETS verified emissions and surrender deadlines.
When is the EU ETS surrender deadline?
Installations and aircraft operators surrender allowances for the previous year's emissions by 30 September. The deadline for 2025 emissions is 30 September 2026, and verified emissions reports for 2026 are due by 31 March 2027.
When does ETS2 start?
ETS2, the separate EU emissions trading system for buildings and road transport, starts on 1 January 2028. Auctions of ETS2 allowances begin in 2027.
What are the key CORSIA dates?
The second phase of CORSIA, covering 2027 to 2029, begins on 1 January 2027. The deadline to cancel eligible emissions units for the first phase is 31 January 2028.
How often does the ICVCM publish decisions?
The Integrity Council publishes its decisions on methodology categories as its assessment batches complete, so they arrive through the year rather than on a fixed date. A watch on a methodology reports a change of outcome when it appears.
Can I see the verified emissions of a specific EU ETS installation?
Yes. CRBN.credit carries every installation in the EU ETS from the European Commission's Union Registry, with verified emissions and free allocation by year and compliance status, and any installation can be added to a watchlist or to a climate disclosure draft.
A note on this article. Dates and statuses are taken from the CRBN.credit Compliance Calendar at the time of writing, where each carries its legal basis; proposals can change before adoption. This article is for information and is not legal, tax or investment advice.