OUR PROGRAMME

The Platinum Programme™, operated and owned by the Carbon Fund, develops and issues verified compliance-grade carbon credits for end buyers seeking to offset tax liabilities or meet ESG commitments in the carbon markets.

The Platinum Programme™ is not just a simple registry of projects.

It is a fully integrated carbon-crediting programme that manages the entire lifecycle of compliance-grade carbon credits in-house — from project development through validation, verification, issuance, sales and retirement.

The registry function is only a microscopic part of what the programme facilitates. Nothing in the value chain is outsourced. This complete end-to-end control ensures the highest levels of integrity and quality for the institutional-grade carbon credits issued at speed to end buyers by the programme.

Key Difference between the Platinum Programme™ and Traditional Registers

Unlike traditional registers, which earn revenue through upfront registry fees, account fees, and review charges regardless of whether credits are ever issued, the Platinum Programme™ earns no registry or development fees until carbon credits are successfully sold.

Instead, the Platinum Programme™ fully funds all costs — registration fees, development and issuances fees — at zero upfront cost to project owners.

This risk-reward alignment of financial interests ensures we are fully incentivised to deliver only high-quality, compliance-grade credits.

Project owners retain 100% legal ownership of the credits and receive an equitable share of the revenue.

Below is a more detailed comparison:

METHODOLOGY & VERIFICATION STANDARD

The Platinum Programme™ adopts internationally recognised CDM methodologies (governed by the UNFCCC CDM Executive Board) together with ISO 14064:2019, the global standard for independent validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions.

Why this approach delivers superior integrity and efficiency:

By building on proven, regulator-tested global standards refined over decades through thousands of real-world projects, the Platinum Programme™ ensures environmental integrity, additionality, conservative accounting, and verifiable emission reductions that regulators and institutional buyers trust.

This approach allows us to focus resources where they matter most: full in-house project development, zero-upfront-cost funding for project owners, rapid project development, issuance, and measurable SDG impact on the ground. It also provides the rigorous, evidence-based assurance — with materiality thresholds, risk evaluation, and independent third-party oversight — that underwriters and insurers require when providing comprehensive financial protection and cashback warranties.

The result is compliance-grade carbon credits with genuine contract certainty and lower risk for all parties.

WHY IS A COMMITMENT TO IMPACT CRITICAL?

Any carbon crediting programme should deliver more than greenhouse gas emission reductions or removals. It should also generate measurable social, environmental, and economic co-benefits that contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and support the broader objectives ofthe Paris Agreement.

The Platinum Programme™ mandates that 10% of all carbon credit revenue is allocated directly to verified SDG-linked impact initiatives. This commitment is embedded in the Partnership Agreement governing the Carbon Fund's global partnership that operates the Platinum Programme™. The ring-fenced allocation is mandatory for every project, enhancing the integrity and value of each carbon credit while supporting community resilience and a just transition in host countries.

Both Project Owners and End Buyers may claim the SDG impact outcomes associated with Platinum Programme™ projects and the purchase and retirement of Platinum Programme™ compliance-grade carbon credits, subject to the Programme's reporting and attribution requirements.

WHY IS EX POST (HISTORICAL) ISSUANCE CRITICAL?

The Platinum Programme™ only issues carbon credits ex post — only after independent verification of actual, historical GHG emission reductions. This ensures that every compliance-grade credit issued represents real, measurable, and permanent climate impact.

This approach strengthens environmental integrity, protects End Buyers from over-crediting risk, and builds long-term trust. In contrast, ex ante issuance based on forecasts carries higher uncertainty.

WHY IS RETIREMENT CRITICAL?

Retirement is the cornerstone of environmental integrity in carbon markets.

A carbon credit only fulfils its intended purpose once it has been permanently retired from the registry. Until retirement occurs, the credit remains a tradable asset that may be transferred between market participants. Retirement irrevocably removes the credit from circulation, ensuring that the associated greenhouse gas emission reduction or removal can only be claimed once. This prevents double counting, double claiming, and multiple use of the same environmental benefit, thereby preserving the credibility and integrity of the carbon market.

The importance of retirement is reinforced by the Paris Agreement through the accounting framework established under Article 6. The Article 6 Rulebook requires robust accounting systems to ensure that internationally transferred mitigation outcomes (ITMOs) are uniquely tracked throughout their lifecycle. The mechanism establishes dedicated holding, cancellation, and retirement accounts, and expressly provides that carbon credits transferred into a retirement account may not be transferred, traded, or used again. These provisions, together with corresponding adjustments where applicable, ensure that every tonne of greenhouse gas mitigation is recognised only once and cannot be counted simultaneously by multiple Parties or market participants.

Retirement also demonstrates that climate finance has achieved its intended purpose. It provides evidence that the purchaser has irrevocably applied the carbon credit towards its climate commitment and that the financial value generated by the transaction has successfully reached verified greenhouse gas mitigation activities. As a result, retirement not only safeguards the environmental claim associated with the carbon credit but also confirms the delivery of the social, environmental, and economic co-benefits generated through the underlying project.

The Platinum Programme™ adopts the highest standard of market integrity by mandating the immediate retirement of every carbon credit upon purchase by the End Buyer.

Carbon credits issued under the Platinum Programme™ are never acquired for speculative trading or secondary market resale. Instead, each credit is purchased solely for retirement, ensuring that every verified tonne of greenhouse gas reduction or removal results in a unique, permanent, and auditable climate claim.

This approach by the Platinum Programme™ eliminates the risk of duplicate claims, aligns with the accounting principles established under the Paris Agreement, and provides End Buyers with the highest level of confidence that their investment has delivered a genuine, exclusive, and permanently retired climate outcome.

WHY ARE POLICIES AND PRINCIPLES IMPORTANT?

The Platinum Programme™ is guided by clear commitment to robust Policies to ensure the highest levels of environmental integrity and regulatory credibility.

The Platinum Programme™ exceeds the (ICVCM) Core Carbon Principles, for Voluntary Carbon Market Programmes, with its absolute commitment to the Compliance Carbon Market Principles™ (CCMP™).

WHY IS TRANSPARENT AND PREDICTABLE PRICING IMPORTANT?

The Platinum Programme™ compliance-grade carbon credits are priced at a 50% discount to the published carbon tax rate applicable to the relevant offset year in the jurisdiction where the underlying project is located. Where no compliance carbon pricing mechanism exists, an appropriate regional regulatory carbon price benchmark is applied.

This transparent and predictable pricing model eliminates market-driven price volatility, one of the principal weaknesses of the Voluntary Carbon Market.

By linking carbon credit prices to recognised regulatory carbon prices, the Platinum Programme™ provides institutional End Buyers with pricing certainty, enabling accurate budgeting, financial reserve provisioning, and long-term carbon financial management with confidence.

IS THEIR CARBON CREDIT PROTECTION IN PLACE?

The Carbon Fund Cash-Back Warranty Guaranteed Protection Plan provides a full USD-equivalent cash-back refund to the End Buyer where a purchased carbon credit (in any currency) is determined to be invalid, meaning that it cannot be retired under the applicable regulatory offset programme. The Carbon Fund protection mechanism complies with Basel regulations allowing for immediate guaranteed capital relief for End Buyers.

The Carbon Fund actuarially reserves a portion of every carbon credit issued by the Platinum Programme™ plus the USD-equivalent cash in escrow with an independent trustee to provide financial protection and reserve capital for future valid claims. The credits are held in the reserve for 5 years before the initial cash reserves can be released for distribution to the parties and the reserved credits are listed for sale.