The Carbon Foundation Launches AAA™ – A New Global Benchmark for Compliance-Grade Carbon Credits

Dan Rodwell
Nov 24
3 min read

Themis Carbon CY Limited, trading as The Carbon Foundation, has formally launched the AAA™ Compliance Carbon Credit Schema, a next-generation standard designed to set a new global bar for integrity, transparency and legal enforceability in carbon markets. EIN Presswire

Positioned as the world’s most rigorous framework for compliance carbon credits, the AAA™ Schema is built for governments, corporates and institutions that require climate action to withstand regulatory, scientific and financial scrutiny—not just marketing claims.

Raising the standard for carbon accountability

The AAA™ (Assured, Auditable, Additional) Compliance Carbon Credit Schema has been engineered to respond to systemic weaknesses in today’s voluntary markets, where inconsistent rules and opaque governance have undermined confidence in carbon offsets.

Rooted in the Kyoto Protocol, the Doha Amendment and the Paris Agreement, the Schema is designed from the outset as a compliance-grade instrument. It is structured to align with emerging mechanisms under Articles 6.2 and 6.4 of the Paris Agreement and with relevant ISO standards, ensuring that credits can be used within robust regulatory and policy frameworks.

Key features of the AAA™ Compliance Carbon Credit Schema

Under the AAA™ framework, every project and every credit must satisfy a stringent set of conditions, including

Legally binding scope assessment of emissions and activities covered;
Demonstrable additionality, supported by full lifecycle documentation and evidential baselines;
Mitigation of negative impacts across operations and project activities prior to registration;
Enforcement-grade transparency and auditability, with documentation and data structured for regulatory and investor due diligence.

The Schema brings together Nature-Based, Technology-Based and Renewable Energy methodologies into a single, coherent architecture. Each credit is subjected to proprietary, investment-grade auditing processes to confirm that claimed reductions or removals are real, measurable and verifiable.

Built on law, science and engineering

AAA™ has been developed by a multidisciplinary team spanning environmental engineering, climate science, law and financial structuring. Its purpose is to move carbon markets away from tolerance of uncertainty and towards enforceable, evidence-based climate outcomes. EIN Presswire

A core pillar of the framework is its advanced registry and data infrastructure. The AAA™ Schema is supported by a blockchain-enabled registry that records events and attributes at a granular level, and enables tokenisation with jurisdictional and state-level acknowledgements. This architecture is designed to:

Eliminate double-counting and double-issuance;
Strengthen traceability and audit trails;
Enhance liquidity while preserving environmental integrity;
Provide resilience against market manipulation and political interference.

For governments, regulators and serious market participants

The Carbon Foundation developed the AAA™ Schema in direct response to concerns from policymakers, regulators and institutional buyers that many existing carbon credits do not meet the standard required for long-term climate commitments, net-zero strategies or statutory obligations.

By combining strict legal structure, high scientific thresholds and independent verification, AAA™ Compliance Carbon Credits are intended to serve as a dependable instrument for:

National and sub-national compliance programmes;
Corporate climate and ESG strategies;
Financial institutions seeking robust climate-aligned products;
Sovereign and quasi-sovereign climate finance initiatives.

As CEO Daniel Rodwell notes, the goal is to replace opacity and risk with clarity, enforceability and measurable performance, giving governments and corporations a standard they can confidently hold on their balance sheets and report to stakeholders. (Paraphrased from original remarks.)

About The Carbon Foundation

The Carbon Foundation is a global leader in carbon credit science, registry innovation and sovereign-authorised compliance markets. Operating across multiple continents, the organisation is focused on building the infrastructure, standards and governance needed to restore trust in carbon markets—one verified, AAA™-grade credit at a time.

For further information about the AAA™ Compliance Carbon Credit Schema, please contact:

Press Relations OfficeThe Carbon Foundationpress@thecarbonfoundation.co