6. Sell your carbon units

Selling Pending Issuance Units

Once your project is validated and your Pending Issuance Units are listed in the registry, you have a product to sell.  

Selling your units as Pending Issuance Units allows you to quickly recoup money spent on establishing your woodland (although you should also plan for the cost of managing and verifying your project in future.)

It’s important to be aware that Pending Issuance Units are not guaranteed so there are risks with selling them. Read our sales agreement templates and guidance for more information.

Your Pending Issuance Units will have a vintage timestamp which refers to the time it will take for them to be converted to Woodland Carbon Units. The vintage informs your buyer when they can expect units to convert.  

You can choose to sell all the Pending Issuance Units from your project to one buyer or sell smaller amounts to different buyers.

Important note: Pending Issuance Units can’t be used to compensate for your buyer’s emissions. They help companies to plan for compensating future UK-based emissions.

As a responsible seller, it’s vital you make this clear to anyone buying your units. By working together, we can help to maintain the integrity of UK voluntary carbon market.

See the claims that companies can make.

Selling Woodland Carbon Units

Once a particular vintage is verified, your Pending Issuance Units will be converted to Woodland Carbon Units.

Selling your units as Woodland Carbon Units means the buyer will be able to use them straight away to compensate for their unavoidable emissions. They may be willing to pay more as a result. The income could help with the costs of managing and verifying your woodland.

When Woodland Carbon Units are sold, they are guaranteed and protected by the Woodland Carbon Code buffer (see 2.3 management of risks and permanence.) This means there is less risk in selling at this stage. See our sales agreement templates and guidance for more information.

There are several ways to find a company which will buy your units:

• Contact local businesses or companies you work with.
• Once your project is validated, you can join our list of developers with units for sale.
• Offer your units for sale on the request for information platform in the UK Land Carbon Registry.
• Contact retail aggregators. These companies work with corporate clients who are looking to buy units. A list is provided below.
• Between 2020 and 2024, projects in England could sell Woodland Carbon Units to the government through the Woodland Carbon Guarantee. The scheme is currently closed.

Retail aggregator	Contact
	Areeb Arshad
	William Clare
	Oliver Rieche
	Mike Ridler
	Carma customer service
	Climate Impact Partners
	Helena Scholz
	Mick Greenwood
	Valentin Bouvier
	Lene Keerberg
	Steve Prior
	Richard Clarke
	Andy Harris
	Carbon portfolio team

Agree a price with a buyer and receive payment for your units.

The price will vary depending on the costs of creating and managing the woodland and the benefits it provides. See recent average carbon prices in the UK.

HMRC has published guidance on charging VAT when you sell carbon credits in the UK.

Buyers can choose to manage their units through their own account on the UK Land Carbon Registry or through a project developer’s or retail aggregator’s account.

Buyer has a registry account

If your buyer has their own registry account, you can transfer units to their account in a similar way to transferring money through internet banking. 

Their carbon units will be visible on the holdings page of the registry.

You can find out more about this step in the registry user guide. To access the guide, sign in to the registry, then visit the help section. 

Buyer doesn’t have a registry account  

If your buyer doesn’t have a registry account, you can assign Pending Issuance Units or retire Woodland Carbon Units tagged with their name.

Assign Pending Issuance Units

You can assign units on behalf of a buyer following the process set out in the registry user guide. To access the guide, sign in to the registry, then visit the help section. 

Once you have assigned Pending Issuance Units to a buyer, they will be able to see the units on the assigned credits page of the registry with their name against them.  

Assigned units cannot be used by the buyer until they are verified. When the units are verified, they will be retired automatically.

Retire Woodland Carbon Units 

You can retire units on behalf of a buyer following the process set out in the registry user guide. To access the guide, sign in to the registry, then visit the help section. 

Your buyer will be able to see their units on the retired credits page of the registry with their name against them. They can refer to this page when they declare their use in an annual greenhouse gases emissions report. The units are then taken out of your account and circulation.

If you've sold Woodland Carbon or Peatland Code units, please consider reporting your prices through the Global Carbon Markets Hub.

It encourages transparency in the market, providing buyers and sellers with a better idea of what to expect when they make transactions.

The information is gathered by Ecosystem Marketplace, an independent organisation which aggregates data to ensure it's anonymous.

Log into your Global Carbon Markets Hub account or email hub@ecosystemmarketplace.com to get started.

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