“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.
Carbon credit ratings are, for the first time, entering a formal EU regulatory framework. If you're a project developer or a carbon credit buyer, here's what actually changes for you, and what to do about it.
Does this change anything for buyers or sellers?
Yes, but not the fundamentals. The EU ESG Ratings Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2024/3005) brings carbon credit ratings under formal EU oversight for the first time, supervised directly by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). It became applicable on 2 July 2026.
For developers, it mostly changes your relationship with rating providers: you get formal rights to engage on your assessment, and providers have to be more transparent about how they're structured and governed.
For buyers, it mostly changes how you tell a trustworthy rating provider from everyone else: authorised providers will sit on a public ESMA register, with clear disclosure requirements behind them.
Will Sylvera comply?
Yes. As part of the first batch of companies going through this process, we've notified ESMA of our intention to apply for authorisation, with a full application due by 2 November 2026 and a decision expected in the first half of 2027. We fully expect to be an authorised provider. Nothing changes in how we work with you while that's underway.
Our governance (independent oversight of ratings, published conflicts disclosures, deterministic and peer-reviewed methodologies, ISO 27001 certification) already reflects what the regulation asks for, since we built it that way from the start rather than adding it now.
The regulation is specific about this: it requires rating methodologies to be rigorous, systematic, independent and capable of justification. That mirrors our framework-led approach, where a published set of rules decides the outcome, rather than a committee reaching a judgment.
What this means for developers
Engagement rights are formalised
Rating providers now have a formal obligation to offer a real route to engage on their assessment of your project and how your score was reached. Sylvera has been offering this since inception. Ratings shouldn't feel like something that happens to your project rather than with it, and this makes that engagement a right rather than a favour.
High-quality projects should stand out more clearly
As independent, regulated ratings become the norm, the gap between bankable, well-assured credits and unverified claims should get easier to see. That's good news if your project holds up to scrutiny.
Ratings approaches should be consistent
A framework-led approach means your project is measured against a fixed, published set of rules, not a committee's read of the evidence on a given day. It means the basis for your rating doesn't shift if the analyst changes, and if you think something's been misread, there's a documented methodology to point to rather than a judgment call to relitigate.
Ratings need to stay current, not just get issued
Part of raising the bar on integrity is that a rating should be based on high quality data. We believe this means it should reflect what's actually happening on your project now, not a snapshot from years ago. If your circumstances change (new evidence, updated monitoring, a change in practice), that should show up in your rating.
What this means for buyers
You'll get a clear way to tell providers apart
As ESMA's public register fills out through 2027, you'll be able to check at a glance whether a rating provider is authorised and supervised, rather than taking their word for it.
Look for the same basics, every time
Transparency around methodologies, a clear business model (issuer-pay or subscription, both allowed under the regulation), and visible conflict-of-interest disclosures. If a provider lacks transparency across any of these, that’s worth deeper questioning.
Ask how a Rating is produced
A framework-led rating gives you something to check (the published methodology, the version it was assessed under). A judgment-led rating asks you to trust a process that isn't always fully reconstructable after the fact.
Check the rating date, not just the grade
A rating is most useful if it's kept current. Before you rely on one for a procurement decision, check when it was last updated.
This sits alongside your accounting obligations, not instead of them
A rating tells you about the credit. Frameworks like the GHG Protocol, and increasingly the EU's CSRD, tell you how to report your use of it.
Sylvera’s view
The direction here is good for the market. Accountability, disclosure, and a public way to check who's regulated and who isn't, are things that carbon markets have lacked and needed - so we fully support this process.
ESMA already supervises credit rating agencies under a separate regime dating back to 2011, and this regulation extends a similar model to ESG and sustainability ratings.
Key dates: applicable from 2 July 2026, provider notifications due by 2 August 2026, full applications due by 2 November 2026, with ESMA authorisation decisions expected through 2027. Outside the EU, there's no equivalent statutory regime yet, though ICMA has a voluntary code of conduct (which Sylvera was the first carbon ratings provider to apply), and IOSCO, SBTi, VCMI, and ICVCM all have related work underway. A UK FCA regime is coming into force from 2028.
We'll keep engaging with ESMA as the technical standards take shape, and share updates as our own application progresses. If you have any questions regarding the regulation, please contact us here.
Click here for our quick-reference ESMA FAQs for a shorter, easy-to-understand version.
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