“Over the years we’ve invested significantly in our field data team - focusing on producing trusted ratings. While this ensures the accuracy of our Ratings, it doesn’t allow the scale across the thousands of projects that buyers are considering.”
For more information on carbon credit procurement trends, read our "Key Takeaways for 2025" article. We share five, data-backed tips to improve your procurement strategy.
One more thing: Connect to Supply customers also get access to the rest of Sylvera's tools. That means you can easily see project ratings and evaluate an individual project's strengths, procure quality carbon credits, and even monitor project activity (particularly if you’ve invested at the pre-issuance stage.)
Book a free demo of Sylvera to see our platform's procurement and reporting features in action.
Two carbon credits from the same project can sell for very different prices. One of the biggest reasons is vintage. Average ARR credits from the 2025 vintage sold for $25.32, almost three times the $9.10 paid for 2018 vintage credits.
But the vintage premium isn't universal. For some project types, newer credits are worth no more than older ones, and for others, they're worth less. Here's what vintages are, why buyers care about them, and what the price data from our 2027 Developer's Guide shows.
Download the 2027 Developer's Guide to see what buyers are paying for, and how to position your credits. Download the guide
What is a carbon credit vintage?
A carbon credit's vintage is the year in which the emissions reduction or removal it represents actually took place. It isn't the year the credit was issued or sold. A project that cut emissions in 2022 might not have that impact verified and issued as credits until 2024, but those credits still carry a 2022 vintage.
Most projects generate a new vintage every year across a crediting period that can run 20 years or more. That means a single project can have several vintages on the market at once, each priced differently.
Why vintages matter
Vintage affects three things that matter to developers: what buyers can claim, which markets a credit can enter, and what it's worth.
- Claims. Corporate buyers face growing scrutiny over the claims they make. A recent vintage shows the credit reflects current climate impact, rather than a reduction that happened years ago.
- Eligibility. Compliance markets set vintage windows. CORSIA's First Phase only accepts credits from the 2021–2026 vintages, and Colombia's carbon tax requires a vintage within five years of the emissions being offset. A credit outside the window is shut out of that demand entirely.
- Perceived quality. Older vintages were often issued under earlier methodology versions, before today's stronger integrity standards. Buyers may discount them for that reason alone.
What buyers are looking for
Buyers increasingly screen on vintage before they look at anything else. Most now focus on credits from the past three to five years, and recent vintages command significant premiums over 2018–2019 credits.
But vintage is a filter, not the final decision. Once a credit passes the screen on project type, geography, and vintage, buyers price on quality: carbon accounting, additionality, permanence, and safeguarding and co-benefits. They also check how current the evidence is. A Sylvera Rating shows when it was last reviewed and which issued vintages it covers, so buyers can see whether the quality assessment applies to the credits they're buying.
What the data shows: prices by vintage
The chart and table below, from the 2027 Developer's Guide, shows the average price paid for credits from each vintage, by project type.
Average price by vintage. Source: Sylvera, Q3 2026. † Small sample.
Four takeaways:
ARR has the steadiest vintage premium. ARR prices rose with every single vintage from 2018 to 2025, adding an average of around $2.30 per vintage year. That's a compound increase of roughly 16% a year. No other project type shows such a consistent pattern.
IFM and REDD+ show the biggest jumps, with more volatility. Recent IFM vintages trade at 3.8x the price of 2018–2019 credits, and REDD+ at 3.3x. But the path wasn't smooth. IFM jumped from $6.00 to $19.60 between the 2019 and 2020 vintages, then moved within a 12–20 range. REDD+ dipped in 2023 before recovering.
Cookstove prices barely move with vintage. Cookstove credits from every vintage between 2018 and 2024 traded between $3.00 and $3.92. The 2025 figure of $17.00 is based on a small sample, so it's too early to call it a trend.
For renewables, newer is actually cheaper. 2024 renewables credits averaged $1.00, about 40% less than the 2018–2019 average of $1.65. A recent vintage can't make up for the doubts many buyers have about the additionality of grid-connected renewables.
Vintage or quality?
Vintage and quality are hard to separate. The share of issuances rated BBB and above has risen from 13%–16% between 2022 and 2024 to 43% in the first three quarters of 2026. So recent vintages are increasingly likely to be higher quality, and part of the vintage premium may reflect that.
Quality alone moves price as much as vintage does. In Q3 2026, ARR credits rated BBB and above averaged $23.47, against $12.80 for those rated BB and below. That $10.67 gap is close to the $12.00 difference between 2019 and 2024 ARR vintages.
The takeaway: a recent vintage gets a credit past the first screen, but quality sets the price.
What this means for developers
- Plan sales around the three-to-five-year window. Holding credits too long can erode value, especially for ARR, IFM, and REDD+, where buyers pay most for recent vintages.
- Know your eligibility windows. If your credits fall within CORSIA's 2021–2026 vintage range, compliance demand ahead of the January 2028 deadline may be worth more to you than the voluntary market.
- Keep your Rating current for the vintages you're selling. Buyers can see which vintages a Rating covers and when it was last reviewed. Sharing new evidence keeps your quality signal in step with your newest credits.
- Don't rely on vintage where it doesn't pay. For cookstoves and renewables, recent vintages earn little or no premium. Differentiate on independently verified quality and co-benefits instead.
Get the full picture
Vintage is one of many factors that shape what your credits are worth. The 2027 Developer's Guide covers the rest, with pricing by region and Rating, attribute scores by Rating level, eligibility rules across compliance and Article 6 markets, and a stage-by-stage checklist for bringing your project to market.
Download the 2027 Developer's Guide to see what buyers are paying for, and how to position your credits. Download the guide
