Registry Accounts

There are 5 types of accounts on the UK Land Carbon Registry. All accounts are public: 

Project Developer accounts: For organisations/individuals which manage Peatland Code projects on the registry. Project developers manage the project in the registry and arrange validation and verification. A project developer could be the landowner or a third-party agent working on their behalf. 

A Project developer may also issue Pending Issuance Units or Peatland Carbon Units and they can then either:

• Transfer them to end buyers, retail aggregators or traders.
• Assign Pending Issuance Units or retire verified units on behalf of end buyers

Project Proponent accounts: For organisations/ individuals that own projects but do not manage their own project or issue the Pending Issuance Units or Peatland Carbon Units in the registry.  Project proponents can receive unsold units from the third-party project developer for the project where they own the land. 

Project proponents can:

• transfer units to corporate end users, retail aggregators or traders with an account or
• Assign Pending Issuance Units or retire verified units on behalf of end buyers without an account.

End Buyer accounts: These are for companies or organisations which are buying credits to use against their own emissions, now or in the future. An end buyer account does not hold any project information and can only receive units from other account types. 

End buyers can:

• Receive Pending Issuance Units or Peatland Carbon Units
• Retire Peatland Carbon Units when the organisation wants to use them.
• They cannot sell on units.

See registry fees for account opening and management costs for end buyer accounts. 

Intermediary accounts

There are two types of accounts for intermediaries who want to buy units and sell them on.

Trading accounts are for organisations which want to buy units and sell them onto their clients.

However, trading account holders must be registered and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to carry out a regulated activity under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 or appropriate, equivalent local regulatory authority. See the Financial Services Register. 

Trading account  can receive units from a project developer, project proponent or other trader then choose whether to:

• Transfer units to end buyers, retail aggregators or other traders who have accounts or
• Assign Pending Issuance Units/ retire Peatland Carbon Units on behalf of end buyers if they don’t have an account

Retail Aggregator accounts are for organistions who want to buy Pending Issuance Units or verified Peatland Carbon Units and then assign or retire them on behalf of their clients. These accounts hold limited functionality

• Retail Aggregators can receive units from a project developer or project proponent. The number of units they can hold and the time they can hold them for will be limited. They can assign Pending Issuance Units or retire Peatland Carbon Units on behalf of their end buyer clients within the specified time period, but cannot transfer units to buyers. 

Can individuals hold a buyer account? 

No. An individual can only buy verified Peatland Carbon Units to retire immediately – they could buy direct from the project developer or from someone with a retail aggregator/ trading account, who can ‘retire’ the units on their behalf making clear the reason (e.g. ‘Retired in 2020 on behalf of Mr Smith to compensate for his March 2019 household emissions’). 

How do I sign up for an account on the registry? 

You can open an account by completing a Environmental Registry form. A member of the Peatland Code team will be in touch to discuss your account following submission.  

How much does it cost to open an account? 

It is free to open an account for Project Developers and Project Proponents, there is a cost however for corporate end user, trading and retail aggregator accounts. Please see our Registry Fees webpage for further information. 

I’m still not sure which kind of account I need… 

That’s ok! Contact peatlandcode@iucn.org.uk and we’ll help you out.