Achievement highlights the vital role of US farmlands in delivering climate solutions while meeting high integrity standards
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Climate Action Reserve issued its two millionth credit under the U.S. Soil Enrichment Protocol (SEP), marking a major milestone for the agricultural sector’s engagement in solving climate change. The Reserve’s protocol provides incentives for farmers and landowners to employ sustainable farming practices that reduce or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the atmosphere, improving the health and resilience of agricultural lands and generating climate benefits for the global community. Reaching this major milestone demonstrates the market’s interest and confidence in financing and scaling credible agricultural climate solutions.
At the same time, the Reserve also tagged the carbon market’s first sustainable agriculture credits with ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label, which identifies the credits as meeting ICVCM’s criteria for high-quality and creating real, verifiable climate impact.
“This milestone demonstrates that farmers across the country are embracing the opportunity to practice climate-smart agriculture and that there is strong market confidence in credits from the agricultural sector’s verified climate leadership. And the first CCP tags for soil credits are a significant development and validation of high quality,” said McKenzie Smith, Associate Director of Strategic Implementation at the Climate Action Reserve.
In the U.S., the agriculture sector accounts for 10.5 percent of GHG emissions, totaling 663.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022. The SEP addresses emissions from the agriculture sector by providing guidance for developing, measuring, reporting, and verifying sustainable management practices that increase the sequestration of carbon or reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide from agricultural operations. The protocol covers emission reductions and removals from a wide variety of agricultural management practice changes that support soil enrichment activities, including changes to fertilizer application, application of soil amendments, water management, tillage and residue management, crop planting and harvesting, fossil fuel usage, and grazing practices.
Since its adoption, the Reserve has issued a total of 2,177,020 credits attributed to two projects: Indigo U.S. Project No.1 and AgriCapture Soil Enrichment #1. Both projects are aggregated projects consisting of multiple farm operators with multiple enrolled fields that are grouped together for larger, more economically feasible projects. The projects represent a combined 1,453 growers and 38,066 unique fields encompassing 2,500,892 total acres across 28 U.S. states. The project that pushed SEP credits past the two millionth mark is Indigo U.S. Project No.1, which recently received 1,178,081 credits for its fifth issuance.
“Getting credit issuance into the millions under the Soil Enrichment Protocol is not only a fantastic achievement for both the Climate Action Reserve and Indigo, but even more so for the farmers who make this possible and for the health of our soils, air and water,” said Max DuBuisson, Head of Impact & Integrity at Indigo. “We appreciate the hard work and dedication of the Reserve team who make these highly complex projects possible with their rigorous standards and expert guidance. Congratulations!”
“AgriCapture is proud to be one of two project developers to have issued credits under the Soil Enrichment Protocol as it surpasses the two-million-credit milestone,” said Tyler Hull, Chief Executive Officer of AgriCapture. “We’re grateful for the high bar SEP has set for scientific rigor and market credibility, which has been foundational to earning buyer trust as we scale high-integrity rice methane outcomes and demonstrate the critical role US rice can play in addressing super-pollutant emissions like methane.”
The Reserve’s SEP Version 1.1 is one of two sustainable agriculture protocols to have been approved by the Governing Board of the ICVCM under its CCP label. This designation, received in October 2025, confirms that the protocol meets the CCP criteria for high quality, bringing confidence to the environmental integrity, permanence, and additionality of the credits issued under the protocol. Credits issued under SEP are CCP eligible, and upon confirming that they meet the requirements, the credits are tagged as CCP approved. To date, 1,842,711 credits issued under SEP have been tagged with the CCP label.
The Climate Action Reserve is the most trusted, efficient, and experienced carbon credit registry for global carbon markets. A pioneer in carbon accounting, the Reserve promotes and fosters the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through credible market-based policies and solutions. As a high-quality carbon credit registry for voluntary carbon markets, it establishes rigorous standards involving multi-sector stakeholder workgroup development and local engagement and issues carbon credits in a transparent and publicly available system. The organization also supports compliance carbon markets in California, Washington and internationally. The Reserve is an environmental nonprofit organization operating virtually with staff located around the world and a support office in Los Angeles, California. For more information, please visit www.climateactionreserve.org. The Climate Action Reserve is an equal opportunity provider.
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Media inquiries: Jennifer Weiss