Platts rolls reflected vintages for its Voluntary Carbon Credit Assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, on July 3 updated the vintages reflected by its Voluntary Carbon Credit Assessments.

Following a market consultation in 2022, Platts now rolls the vintages reflected in its Voluntary Carbon Credit Assessments on the first working day of the third quarter each year. Platts defines a range of vintages reflected in its assessments dependent on liquidity and the relationship between vintage and value (detailed below). The roll means assessments now reflect more recent vintages. This vintage roll is with the exception of Platts CEC, which continues to reflect 2016-2020 vintages.

Vintages previously rolled on the first working day of the year.

This update follows a previous consultation with the market, which found that credits reflecting current year vintage were not available for most product types until later in the calendar year, following the verification of individual project emissions data.

The decision note published Nov. 30 is available here: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/113022-platts-to-move-annual-roll-for-reflected-vintages-in-voluntary-carbon-credit-assessments-to-first-working-day-of-q3

The proposal note published Oct. 21 is available here: https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/our-methodology/subscriber-notes/102122-platts-proposes-to-move-the-annual-roll-for-reflected-vintages-to-first-working-day-of-q3.

While credits for current year vintages for some project types are available promptly into the new year -- Renewable Energy and Methane Collection, for example -- current year vintage credits from other types of projects -- Agriculture, Forestry & Land Use (AFOLU) and Household Devices projects, for example -- typically take longer to verify.

Under the previous methodology, the Platts Household Devices assessment reflected vintages from the last four years, including the current year, which would have been 2020-2023 on Jan. 3, 2023.

Under the November 30 methodology change, Platts has instead updated the vintages reflected on July 3, 2023.

In the above example, Platts Household Devices continued to reflect vintages 2019-2022 on Jan. 3, and has rolled to reflect vintages 2020-2023 on July 3, 2023.

Platts CEC – which reflects CORSIA eligible credits including exchanges standardized contracts – will continue to reflect 2016-2020 vintages, in line with CORSIA rules. Under Platts Carbon methodology, Platts CEC reflects the spot market for specific maturations, or vintages as per ICAO's guidelines.

See below a summary of the vintages reflected by Voluntary Carbon Credits Assessments for Current Year delivery from July 3, 2023 and until the first working day of Q3 2024:

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