Reference · 8 min read
Compliance markets
India's CCTS, BRSR and the EU's CBAM — what each one asks of you, and the official sources to read.
Where to read the rules yourself
Compliance markets are created by instruments, not by opinion. Below are the primary documents and portals — the scheme notification, the administrator, the registry, and the regulators — followed by our plain-English summary of what each framework asks of you.
- Government of IndiaPrimary source
Indian Carbon Market Portal
The official registry and administration portal for the CCTS. Launched at Prakriti 2026; it is where obligated entities register and certificates are issued.
Open ↗ - Bureau of Energy EfficiencyPrimary source
Carbon Market — scheme documents
BEE administers the CCTS under the Ministry of Power. This page carries the scheme notification S.O. 2825(E), amendment S.O. 5369(E), and the Detailed Procedure for the Compliance Mechanism.
Open ↗ - Press Information BureauPrimary source
Prakriti 2026 — portal launch
The Government's own record of the launch, the sectors covered, and the intended trading timeline.
Open ↗ - ICAP
Indian Carbon Credit Trading Scheme — factsheet
The International Carbon Action Partnership's structured profile of the CCTS: scope, caps, timeline, and how it compares with other systems worldwide.
Open ↗ - CERCPrimary source
Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
Regulates the power market the carbon certificates will trade alongside, including the exchanges and their trading regulations.
Open ↗ - European CommissionPrimary source
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
The EU's carbon border levy. If you export steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen or electricity into the EU, this is the instrument that prices your embedded emissions.
Open ↗ - UNFCCCPrimary source
The Paris Agreement
The treaty text, including Article 6 — the basis for international transfer of mitigation outcomes between countries.
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India’s CCTS — the short version
The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme was notified in June 2023 and is administered by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency under the Ministry of Power. It has two halves: a compliance mechanism, where notified energy-intensive sectors are given greenhouse-gas emission intensity targets and must surrender certificates if they miss them; and an offset mechanism, through which non-obligated projects can register and earn certificates. Certificates are issued on the Indian Carbon Market registry and traded on power exchanges.
The Indian Carbon Market Portal went live at Prakriti 2026, the Government’s international conference on carbon markets. Obligated entities register there; the offset side is where most project developers will enter.
BRSR — Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report
India’s listed-company disclosure format, administered by SEBI. It asks for structured reporting across environmental, social and governance principles, including energy and emissions data. The practical burden is data collection across business units rather than the narrative itself.
CBAM — Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
An EU measure that prices the emissions embedded in certain imported goods, so that imports face a carbon cost comparable to EU production. For exporters the immediate requirement is credible product-level embedded-emissions data — which most supply chains cannot yet produce.
CCTS — Carbon Credit Trading Scheme
India’s domestic carbon market, covering both a compliance mechanism for notified sectors and an offset mechanism for voluntary projects.
ISO 14068
The international standard governing carbon-neutrality claims. It sets a hierarchy: measure, reduce, and only then offset residual emissions — and it constrains what an organisation may claim as a result.
VCMI Claims Code of Practice
Guidance on what a company may credibly say when it uses carbon credits, including prerequisites such as having a science-aligned reduction target and disclosing progress against it before making any claim.
ICVCM Core Carbon Principles
A quality threshold applied on the supply side, assessing methodologies against criteria including additionality, permanence, robust quantification, and sound governance.
The registries and standard-setters
These are the bodies that actually decide whether a tonne counts. The registries hold the serialised record of every issuance and retirement; the standard-setters define what may be issued in the first place and what a buyer may afterwards claim. If a seller cannot point you to a record on one of these, there is nothing to buy.
- VerraPrimary source
Verified Carbon Standard
The largest voluntary standard by issued volume. Its registry is the system of record for VCS projects and the retirement of their credits.
Open ↗ - Gold StandardPrimary source
Gold Standard for the Global Goals
A standard that requires demonstrated sustainable-development benefit alongside the emission reduction, not just the tonne.
Open ↗ - Verra Registry
Public project and issuance records
Where a specific project's issuances, retirements and serial numbers can be looked up directly rather than taken on trust.
Open ↗ - ICVCMPrimary source
Core Carbon Principles
The integrity threshold for the supply side. The CCPs define what makes a credit credible — additionality, permanence, robust quantification, no double counting.
Open ↗ - VCMIPrimary source
Claims Code of Practice
The demand-side counterpart to the CCPs: what a company may legitimately say once it has bought and retired credits. Read this before writing any climate claim.
Open ↗ - Science Based Targets initiativePrimary source
Corporate Net-Zero Standard
The reference framework for setting reduction targets. It is explicit that credits do not substitute for cutting your own emissions.
Open ↗ - CDP
Environmental disclosure system
The disclosure platform most large buyers already report through, and the dataset many procurement teams are measured against.
Open ↗ - IETA
International Emissions Trading Association
Industry body covering market structure, contract standards and policy developments across both compliance and voluntary markets.
Open ↗ - IPCCPrimary source
Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)
The underlying science: what the mitigation pathways require, and the role carbon pricing plays within them.
Open ↗ - UNFCCC
Article 6 mechanisms
How credits move between countries, and where corresponding adjustments apply — the part that determines whether a tonne can be counted twice.
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