Carbon Project Due Diligence Guide
A practical guide for buyers and investors
The voluntary carbon market has matured fast. As more capital and buyers enter the market, the gap between a genuinely credible project and one that only looks credible on paper has never mattered more.
Whether you’re buying credits to support a net-zero claim or investing in a project’s development, the same question applies: is this project credible, transparent and built to last?
Our guide sets out what robust carbon project due diligence involves: the risks it needs to uncover, the questions it needs to answer, and the levels of assurance available depending on what’s at stake.
Inside this Guide:
- Why due diligence matters for buyers and investors: buyers need credits they can defend publicly; investors need projects that perform financially as well as environmentally
- The seven areas a robust assessment covers: methodology, implementation and operational risk, climate and nature risk, political and regulatory stability, reputation and integrity, data quality and transparency, and stakeholder engagement and social risk
- How to choose the right level of assurance: from an initial go/no-go screening to a comprehensive assessment with on-the-ground verification
- How due diligence supports better decisions: connecting financial return and impact return through Anthesis’s ROI² approach
This guide is relevant for:
- Carbon credit buyers who need confidence that the credits behind their climate claims are real, additional, durable and aligned with the ICVCM Core Carbon Principles.
- Investors committing capital to carbon projects who need assurance on project design, methodology, governance and long-term viability.
Why Anthesis
We don’t only assess carbon projects from the outside. We also develop and manage our own portfolio of carbon projects, which gives us practical, on-the-ground insight into what makes projects succeed or struggle. Combined with our carbon market expertise, climate science and environmental and social risk assessment, that means independent, evidence-based due diligence you can rely on.