Project certification

The steps for project certification, including validation and verification, under the Rainbow Standard are summarized in the table and detailed in corresponding sections below.

Summary

Certification step	Description
Application	Project Developer (PD) submits a Project Application (PA), which is reviewed by the Rainbow team. Clarifications may be requested, and a refusal report is issued if the application is rejected. Approved applications proceed to registration.
Registration	PD signs Rainbow Service Agreement, agreeing to the Terms & Conditions, and completes administrative setup, including Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements. Any Registration Partners are formally documented. PD submits data and proof to the Certification Platform Project is added on the Rainbow Registry
Pre-Validation	Project Design Document (PDD) is generated, outlining project operations, GHG quantification, additionality, and Monitoring Plan. Certification team reviews the PDD, possibly involving domain experts, and approves it before third-party validation.
Validation	VVB conducts a validation audit to confirm project adherence to Rainbow Standard Rules and chosen methodology, involving the PD and Certification team as needed. In parallel, PD conducts or provides evidence of a stakeholder consultation, open for 30 days on the Rainbow Registry.
Monitoring and Verification	Key parameters are monitored regularly to track project impact and eligibility. PD submits monitored parameters per the Monitoring Plan; prepares a Monitoring Report which subject to the verification audit by the VVB annually (or as per schedule) to verify GHG quantification and RCC issuance.
Compliance and Updates	Projects must stay compliant with Rainbow Standard and methodology revisions and report major operational changes in the Monitoring Report. VVB audits any revisions or changes, ensuring alignment with updated methodologies and standards.
Crediting Period Renewal	After the end of the crediting period, the project may be renewed by undergoing a full revalidation, including a new PDD, validation audit, and stakeholder consultation to continue issuing credits.

Timeline

• Project start date: when the mitigation activity within the project scope first begins. This date shall fall within three years of the project’s registration date, unless the project was previously registered under a different standard/program

• Project registration date: the date the Project Developer signs the Service Agreement, and the project is created on the registry.

• Project validation date: the date after which the project is eligible to issue RCCs. This is the date the project has completed a validation audit by a VVB, has completed project validation review by the Rainbow team, and the PDD is made available on the registry.

• Monitoring period: the duration of project activities covered by a single monitoring report, and eligible for credit issuance. The default monitoring period duration is one year, but may be shorter at the Project Developer's request for more frequent credit issuance. The first monitoring period may begin up to 18 months before the registration date, and subsequent monitoring periods shall be no longer than 24 months long.

• Crediting period: the duration of project mitigation activities that are eligible for credit issuance. The maximum duration of the crediting period shall be defined by the methodology, and is typically 5 years. If the project is already underway upon registration with Rainbow, the crediting period and the first monitoring period may start up to 18 months prior to its registration date with Rainbow.

Application

The Project Developer shall submit a Project Application (PA) to start the certification process. This step is free of charge for Project Developers.

Once received, the PA shall be reviewed by the Rainbow team. If clarification or additional details are needed, questions shall be sent to the Project Developer. Applications are assessed according to their compliance with the Eligible technologies section of each methodology.

For rejected applications, a refusal report explaining the decision shall be provided to the Project Developer. Approved PAs proceed to project registration.

Registration

To continue the certification process, the Project Developer shall sign the Rainbow Service Agreement and accepts the Registry and MRV platform Terms of Use.

Upon this signature, the Rainbow team adds the project on the registry.

To activate a Rainbow Registry Account Holder account, the Project Developer must complete the following steps:

• Use the connection link received via email

• Complete all administrative information required in the Admin page

• Follow the Know Your Customer (KYC) policy to ensure the Project Developer is registered properly

Once the account is activated, the Rainbow team gives the Project Developer access to the Certification Platform and dMRV platform to submit all elements required for the Project Design Document (PDD), including data and proof files.

If the Project Developer chooses a partner to register projects under the Rainbow Standard, they must sign a Letter of Delegation (template provided here).

This document must name the Registration Partner and define their authority and responsibilities, formally authorizing them to represent the Project Developer in all registration, documentation, and project management activities under the Rainbow Standard.

Pre-validation

PDD creation

The data, responses, and their proof submitted by the Project Developer are used to generate the PDD. The PDD serves as the final validation document used for audit. Minimum requirements for a PDD are listed below.

Minimum requirements for the PDD

PDDs shall contain, at a minimum, the following information:

General and scope description

• Non-technical description of the project operations, scope, Project Developer, location, and other relevant actors

• Legal ownership and contact information of the Project Developer

• If using a registration partner or a group of Project Developers, a description of if and how advisory services are provided to Project Developers

• Technical description of the technology and project operations

• Specific location of the project, including and/or GPS coordinates of the mitigation activity

• Compliance with any accreditations beyond Rainbow certification (e.g. CRCF, ICVCM..)

• Start date of the project, and start and end dates of the crediting period

• Monitoring Plan with parameters to be monitored

• Site registration

Eligibility, principles and requirements

• Justification that the project meets all Principles and requirements described in the Rainbow Standard Rules, and the chosen methodology

• Stakeholders identified and outcomes of the stakeholder consultation

• Assessment of environmental and social risks, and demonstration of sustainability

• Project specific buffer pool contribution (if issuing removal RCCs)

GHG quantification

• Source for GWP100 values (IPCC AR6 or other IPCC version)

• Information on how the methodology was applied for the purpose of

  • determining the baseline,

  • demonstrating additionality and

  • quantifying GHG emission reductions or removals, including but not limited to assumptions, data sources, and emission sources/sinks, that are not already defined at the methodology level

• Project-specific uncertainty assessment and discount factor

• Future projections throughout the crediting period including:

  • Operational, production, delivery information

  • Expected total gross GHG emissions, carbon removals, and avoidance

  • Expected total net GHG emissions, carbon removals, and avoidance (after applying the discount factor and buffer pool contribution)

  PDDs shall be made publicly available on the Rainbow Registry upon completing Validation. See the Registry and documentation section for further instructions on publicly available documentation.

PDD review

The Rainbow team evaluates the PDD and any supporting documents to ensure they respect Rainbow’s general and methodology GHG quantification steps and eligibility requirements.

The Rainbow team may require clarifications and additional information about the project via the Certification Platform.

For projects unlike any previously validated by Rainbow, or in cases of uncertainty, the Rainbow team may recommend a full or partial review of the PDD by a domain expert from the Technical Advisory Committee. This review incurs fees based on the expert’s rates, charged to the Project Developer.

After the PDD undergoes expert review (if needed) and is approved by the Rainbow team, the project proceeds to third-party validation with the VVB.

Validation

Validation is always the first audit for a project. Validation only occurs once at the beginning of each crediting period.

A project may undergo:

• validation only, if they are in the early stages of operation, have activities that can be assessed in the site audit, but may not want to issue credits yet. In this case, no RCCs are issued as an outcome of the audit, or

• validation and verification simultaneously, if it is operational and ready to issue ex-post RCCs.

Validation audit

All projects shall undergo a validation audit with an accredited third-party VVB to become eligible for issuing RCCs.

Once the Rainbow team completes the PDD review, and approves of the PDD, the Rainbow team puts together the Validation audit package, containing the elements listed below, available to the third-party VVB on the Certification Platform.

VVB shall follow VVB requirements, to define the audit team, scope and plan.

Validation audit package

The audit package shall contain the following elements :

• PDD

• Risk assessment (Environmental and Social Evaluation, Reversal Risk Evaluation)

• Additionality template

• Monitoring Plan

• GHG quantification spreadsheets (extracts from Rainbow Certification Platform)

• Stakeholder consultation procedure and outcome

• All relevant supporting documents and sources

Audit procedure

The Validation and Verification audits shall be conducted by VVB in accordance ISO 14064-3 and ISO 14065, and in compliance with the requirements of EN ISO/IEC 17021-1 in conjunction with EN ISO/IEC 19011 (or equivalent standards).

Validation and verification audits shall cover at least the following elements:

• identification of the activity undertaken by the Project Developer which is relevant for the methodology

• identification of the relevant methodology and Rainbow Standard Rules requirements of the project and the Project Developer's organisation, and check its effective implementation;

• analysis of the risks which could lead to a material misstatement, based on the auditor’s professional knowledge and the information submitted by the Project Developer. The analysis of risks shall take into consideration the overall risk profile of the activity, depending on the level of risk of the operator. The audit intensity or scope, or both, shall be adapted to the level of overall risk items.

• an audit plan which corresponds to the risk analysis and the scope and complexity of the Project Developer’s activity, and which defines the sampling methods to be used with respect to that operator’s activity;

• implementation of the audit plan by gathering evidence in accordance with the defined sampling methods, plus all relevant additional evidence, upon which the auditor’s conclusion will be based;

• a request by the auditor to the Project Developer to provide any missing elements of audit trails, an explanation of variations, or the revision of claims or quantification, before reaching a final audit conclusion;

• Internal Review by an auditor who is not the Audit Leader, in the same VVB organization, to perform a final QA/QC review (Quality Assurance/Quality Control), attesting to accuracy of data and of the Audit Leader's findings.

A Conflict of Interest (COI) form shall submitted to Rainbow’s Certification team for the audit team for each validation and verification audit.

The VVB's approach and findings are documented in the Audit Report, shared with the Project Developer and the Rainbow team, and made publicly available on the Rainbow Registry.

Any concerns, discrepancies and/or non-conformities identified in the audit shall be handled according to the requirements in the Non-conformities section

Site audit

A site audit is a required component of the Validation audit. The goal of the site audit is to confirm that:

• The project exists and is functional

• The scale of the project is in line with the description

• Key processes operate as described in the project PDD

The VVB shall specify in the Audit Plan which specific components to be checked during the site audit.

The methodology shall define whether the site audit must be based on an on-site visit or a remote audit. Remote site audits shall ensure confidence in the VVB audit process by enabling direct observations via electronic means:

• Videographic evidence is required for remote site audits. The videos should allow the VVB to confirm that each component is true, and will typically consist of a tour of the site with commentary.

• Formats may include video calls with the auditors or pre-recorded videos.

The findings and comments of the site audit shall be documented in the Audit Report.

Any concerns, discrepancies and/or non-conformities identified in the audit shall be handled according to the requirements in the Non-conformities section.

Public comment period

Projects shall undergo a public comment period on the Rainbow Registry for at least 30 days, in parallel with or before the validation audit. The public comment period complements the project stakeholder consultation, and provides an open-access space where stakeholders can check the project details, provide feedback and raise concerns.

If no feedback is received on the registry, this must be clearly stated in the public documentation available on the Rainbow Registry.

Any feedback received is added to project documentation and made available on the Rainbow Registry.

All interested parties and stakeholders are encouraged to continuously provide any feedback or raise concerns about projects certified under the Rainbow Standard. They can do so by email at [email protected], or via this form.

Project validation review

Once approved by the VVB, the PDD is sent back to the Rainbow Team to review the VVB’s remarks, and evaluate feedback from the registry public comment period.

The Rainbow Certification Team ensures that the VVB has followed the VVB requirements and thoroughly audited the following elements:

• Project Design Document (PDD)

• Risk assessment (i.e. Environmental and Social Evaluation, Reversal Risk Evaluation)

• Additionality template

• Monitoring Plan

• GHG quantification spreadsheets (extracts from Rainbow Certification Platform)

• Stakeholder consultation materials

The Rainbow Certification Team directly reviews the following content:

• the VVB’s remarks and the Project Developer's responses

• the PDD, with clarifications asked by the VVB included in the Appendix

• feedback from the public comment period

• the VVB's Audit Report

After all concerns are addressed, the project is validated. The PDD is made publicly available on the Rainbow Registry.

The date this occurs is recorded as the project's validation date in the registry. From this point onward, the project becomes eligible to issue credits for the duration of the crediting period.

The project may undergo a verification audit simultaneously, which results in RCC issuance.

If the VVB or the Rainbow team identifies non-conformities, the requirements from the Non-conformities section applies.

Monitoring and verification

Monitoring

Project Developers monitor ongoing processes and report key parameters during each monitoring period to issue RCCs.

Project Developers shall adhere to the Monitoring Plan, which is established and audited during the validation stage. The Monitoring Plan specifies the key parameters to track to:

• quantify GHG reductions/removals and

• demonstrate compliance with the Principles and requirements in the Rainbow Standard Rules and the applicable methodology.

Project Developers shall submit a Monitoring Report at least once per 24 months. Failure to do so shall result in the project being deregistered. The default monitoring period duration is one year, but may be shorter according to the requirements of the relevant Methodology, or at the Project Developer's request.

The Monitoring Report shall document for the monitoring period:

• any project scope change;

• any process change;

• the parameters laid out in the Monitoring Plan;

• if applicable, the updated responses to modified requirements from a methodology or Rainbow Standard update (see Versioning and project compliance)

Verification audit

Verification occurs after a project is validated, and has provided a Monitoring Report.

The first verification may happen alongside validation or separately. Subsequent verifications (e.g., in years 2, 3, etc.) occur independently, as validation is conducted only once at the start of the crediting period.

Projects shall undergo a verification audit with an accredited VVB for each RCC issuance.

The verification audit may occur at the same time as the validation audit.

Once the Rainbow team completes the Monitoring Report review, and approves it, the Rainbow team puts together the Verification audit package, containing the elements listed below, available to the third-party VVB on the Certification Platform.

VVBs shall follow VVB requirements to define the audit team, scope and plan, in compliance with the Rainbow Standard Rules, the specified methodology and project's Monitoring Plan.

Verification audit package

The audit package shall contain the following elements :

• Monitoring Plan

• Monitoring Report

• GHG quantification spreadsheets (extracts from Rainbow Certification Platform)

• Any relevant supporting documents and sources

Audit procedure

The Validation and Verification audits shall be conducted by VVB in accordance ISO 14064-3 and ISO 14065, and in compliance with the requirements of EN ISO/IEC 17021-1 in conjunction with EN ISO/IEC 19011 (or equivalent standards).

Validation and verification audits shall cover at least the following elements:

• identification of the activity undertaken by the Project Developer which is relevant for the methodology

• identification of the relevant methodology and Rainbow Standard Rules requirements of the project and the Project Developer's organisation, and check its effective implementation;

• analysis of the risks which could lead to a material misstatement, based on the auditor’s professional knowledge and the information submitted by the Project Developer. The analysis of risks shall take into consideration the overall risk profile of the activity, depending on the level of risk of the operator. The audit intensity or scope, or both, shall be adapted to the level of overall risk items.

• an audit plan which corresponds to the risk analysis and the scope and complexity of the Project Developer’s activity, and which defines the sampling methods to be used with respect to that operator’s activity;

• implementation of the audit plan by gathering evidence in accordance with the defined sampling methods, plus all relevant additional evidence, upon which the auditor’s conclusion will be based;

• a request by the auditor to the Project Developer to provide any missing elements of audit trails, an explanation of variations, or the revision of claims or quantification, before reaching a final audit conclusion;

• Internal Review by an auditor who is not the Audit Leader, in the same VVB organization, to perform a final QA/QC review (Quality Assurance/Quality Control), attesting to accuracy of data and of the Audit Leader's findings.

A Conflict of Interest (COI) form shall submitted to Rainbow’s Certification team for the audit team for each validation and verification audit.

Once the Monitoring Report is audited and approved, the VVB shall deliver a verification Audit Report for each verification.

Verification review and issuance

The Rainbow Certification Team directly reviews the following content:

• the VVB’s remarks and the Project Developer's responses

• the verification Audit Report

• the Monitoring Report.

If no concerns remain unaddressed, the verified amount of RCCs are issued with the corresponding attributes (durability, vintage, mechanism). The Monitoring Report and Audit Report are made publicly available on the Rainbow Registry.

Any concerns, discrepancies and/or non-conformities identified in the audit shall be handled according to the requirements in the Non-conformities section.

Versioning and project compliance

Each project validation, verification, and credit issuance is conducted under a specific version of the Rainbow Standard Rules and the applicable methodology. These versions are tracked and reported in the registry. When the methodology used during project validation is updated, the following applies:

• Methodologies must specify whether projects are required to adopt the latest version for subsequent verifications of RCCs.

• Project Developers are strongly encouraged to update their projects to comply with the latest requirements whenever possible.

Methodologies may:

• Require all projects to comply with the latest version, unless a grace period has been explicitly granted for the project by Rainbow; or

• Allow projects to continue under the previous version used for their initial validation.

To demonstrate compliance with updated versions, the Project Developer must show adherence to new requirements in the next Monitoring Report. The VVB shall audit all changes summarized in the Monitoring Report to ensure compliance with any updates in the selected methodology or Rainbow Standard Rules during the subsequent Verification audit.

If a methodology update renders a project ineligible, the project cannot issue new credits at the next verification. Credits already issued remain valid on the registry.

A grace period applies before any new version of a Rainbow Standard document or methodology becomes mandatory. Projects already undergoing a validation or verification audit are exempt and may continue using the previous version for that audit event only.

Non-conformities

The types of non-conformities by Project Developers that may emerge as a result of a validation or verification audit, and their remediation measures, are detailed in the table below.

Credits shall not be issued until all non-conformities are resolved and approved by the VVB. Failure to resolve or remediate minor non-conformities shall result in no credit issuance for the concerned monitoring period.

Other instances of non-conformity not listed here shall be raised by a VVB and classified by the Rainbow team as critical, major, or minor, and handled accordingly.

Non-conformity	Description	Remediation/sanctions
Critical	Grave and irreconcilable violation of Rainbow Principles and requirements, as outlined in the Rainbow Standard Rules Deliberate misstatement or misrepresentation of the project and/or mitigation activity Falsification of data used for GHG quantification	Validation audit: the project shall not be validated may reapply for validation 12 months after final decision of non-conformity Verification audit: credits shall not be issued the project shall be immediately de-registered from the Rainbow Registry previously-issued credits that are unaffected by the non-conformity may remain on the registry affected by the non-conformity shall be cancelled according to the cancelation procedure
Major	Repeated problems with data used for GHG quantification, e.g. incorrect documentation identified in >10% of the claims included in the representative sample Project Developers failing to declare their participation in other certification schemes simultaneously with Rainbow Repeated failure to provide relevant information to the VVB	Validation audit: the project shall not be validated may reapply for validation 6 months after final decision of non-conformity Verification audit: credits shall not be issued the project shall be immediately suspended from the Rainbow Registry Project Developers shall implement the identified remediation action/s within 90 days of notification of suspension. Failure to do so shall result in the project being de-registered from the Rainbow Registry Upon resolving or remediating the non-conformities within 90 days, the project is re-registered and is eligible to issue credits in subsequent monitoring periods.
Minor	Isolated problems with data used for GHG quantification Isolated provision of insufficient or irrelevant proof Violation of Rainbow requirements or procedures that has a limited impact	Validation audit: VVBs shall communicate minor non-conformities to Rainbow and the Project Developer Project Developers shall implement the identified remediation action/s within 90 days of notification of non-conformity. Failure to do so shall result in the termination of the project validation. The project may reapply for validation 3 months after final decision of non-conformity. Upon resolving or remediating the non-conformities within 3 months, the project may be immediately validated. Verification audit: Credits shall not be issued until all non-conformities are resolved and approved by the VVB Failure to resolve or remediate minor non-conformities within 90 days shall result in no credit issuance for the concerned monitoring period. Validated projects may issue credits in subsequent monitoring periods.

Crediting Period Renewal

The maximum duration of the crediting period shall be defined by the methodology. For the defined number of years after the start of the crediting period, the validation and Monitoring Plan are valid, and verification may be performed by following the Monitoring Plan requirements.

Upon reaching the end of the crediting period, the crediting period must be renewed for the project to remain registered with Rainbow, and to continue issuing credits.

Upon renewal of the crediting period, projects must comply with the most recent version of the applicable methodology and the Rainbow Standard Rules, and undergo a new validation assessment by performing the following steps, including all elements described in the Project validation section:

• Preparation of a new PDD, with updated responses to all principles and requirements, updated GHG reduction quantification, and an updated selection of a baseline scenario

• Validation audit

• Site audit

• Stakeholder consultation

• Project validation review

Upon renewing a crediting period, a new crediting period start and end date shall be defined for the project.

Deregistration

If a Project Developer seeks to deregister a project from Rainbow it may do so by notifying the Secretariat (at [email protected]). Deregistration is activated within a calendar month of the receipt of this information.

Rainbow shall send a certificate of deregistration to the Project Developer stating from which date the project's activity is deregistered and the end date of the last monitoring period. In such a case, the Project Developer is responsible for completing any Audits still due and to pay any fees still due.

The Project Developer shall choose how to manage any credits that were issued but not transferred, sold, or retired on the Rainbow registry. They may choose between:

• keeping those credits available on the Rainbow registry, or

• canceling those credits on the Rainbow registry, e.g. to convert and re-issue them by the other GHG program on its registry.

Project status on the registry

Project status is related to the different steps in the certification process, and is outlined in the table below.

See the RCC Status on the registry section for corresponding information on credit status.

Status	Definition
Pending	The Project Developer has completed the Project Application and the project is created in the registry back office. The Rainbow team waits for the Project Developer's submission of more complete data to perform the Project Eligibility Assessment. Project does not exist on the registry.
Listed	The Rainbow team has completed the Project Eligibility Assessment and approves the project. The Project Developer has signed up for registration by signing the Terms & Conditions for Project Developers, and is submitting full information to comply with Rainbow Standard and methodology requirements. A draft PDD may be under preparation, with the aim of gathering 80% of responses and proof. The project is now listed on the registry.
Registered	Draft PDD is reviewed by the Rainbow team and and is accessible on the registry. A Draft PDD may include but is not limited to the project's estimated RCCs, co-benefits, photos, project description and location.
Public comment period	Third-party validation audit by the VVB is in progress. The public comment period facilitated by Rainbow is available from the project's registry page. It shall remain open for at least 30 days.
Validated	The audit statement from the VVB has been shared with Rainbow, checked and uploaded to the registry. The project's validation date is displayed on the registry (also referred to as "registration date"). The PDD is finalized and uploaded. Project is eligible to issue credits. If the project is already operating, it may undergo validation and verification at the same time, and pass directly to "Credited" status below.
Credited	Same as "Validated", and has completed at least one round of Monitoring and verification. A Monitoring Plan has been submitted by the Project Developer and been audited by a VVB. The project must be operating. RCCs are issued and made available on the registry.
Completed	The project has reached the end of its lifetime, is not renewed, and is no longer issuing new RCCs. The project remains visible on the registry.
Withdrawn	The project stops certification before reaching "Validated" status. Project Developer decides to no longer list the project on the Rainbow registry, the project is no longer visible.
De-registered	The project was validated (reached "Validated" status), and may or may not have been credited, but is no longer active. The project is still visible on the Rainbow registry.
Rejected	Rainbow or the VVB decides to not certify the project, prior to validation (reaching "Validated" status). The project is not visible on the Rainbow registry.
Suspended	A major non-conformity has been identified or the Project Developer was found responsible for an erroneous issuance The project is still visible on the Rainbow registry.