Credits (MCUs)
Issuing, transferring, retiring and cancelling MCUs, and how the CR-I Buffer Pool covers the risk of reversals.
Marketable Carbon Units (MCUs) are issued after verification. These articles explain what happens to them afterwards and how reversal risk is managed for land-based projects.
MCUs are issued for each verified monitoring period after NCCF approves the request for issuance and the issuance fee is paid. Each MCU carries a unique serial number linked to its project and vintage.
MCUs can be transferred between IPP and TO accounts, whether sold or not. NCCF does not set prices, and tracks every transfer by serial number.
Retirement permanently withdraws MCUs to claim an offset; cancellation permanently removes them for any other purpose. Both are irreversible. Retirement costs INR 0.20 per MCU; cancellation is free.
Land-based projects assess the risk that stored carbon is released again, and deposit a Minimum Buffer Percentage (MBP) of 12% to 40% of their MCUs in the CR-I Buffer Pool. A High risk in any category makes a project ineligible.
If stored carbon is lost, for example through fire, the IPP notifies NCCF within 15 days and submits a verified reversal report. NCCF then cancels MCUs from the Buffer Pool to compensate.
