ARC, the Adaptable Registry for Carbon
ARC is the registry a Designated National Authority runs itself. It takes a mitigation project from concept note to issued units, records Article 6 authorisations and corresponding adjustments, and keeps every movement on a hash-linked ledger, with a public portal on top.
The demo is a fully populated registry for a fictional Country X. The playground is a sandbox that resets every day.
Approve projects, authorise units for international transfer, apply corresponding adjustments and prepare reports to the UNFCCC. One registry per deployment, on infrastructure you choose.
Submit concept notes and design documents, answer review comments, pay fees, report monitoring results and follow each project’s milestones.
Open a holding account after identity checks, receive and transfer units, and check any serial number on the public portal.
What the registry does today, and what is ready to switch on when an outside body opens its side. Each feature carries its status.
Concept note, project design document, implementation, monitoring and issuance, each with review, return for changes and approval, and committee review where your process calls for it. A project cannot file for a stage it has not reached.
Cancellations, account suspensions, authorisations, transfer completion and ledger corrections each wait for a second officer. The officer who asks cannot confirm, the database enforces it, and unconfirmed requests expire after 72 hours. Switching a control off needs a second officer too.
Every unit movement and record version is appended, never edited, and carries a SHA-256 hash linked to the one before it. Verification recomputes the chain independently, and scheduled checks look for broken invariants.
Each day the head of the chain is anchored and published. Anyone can download the anchor receipts without signing in. Independent RFC 3161 timestamping can be switched on.
Register cooperative approaches and issue versioned authorisations with the content decision 4/CMA.6 asks for. Extensions, reductions and revocations become new versions, so the history is never overwritten.
A first-transfer engine applies the trigger your authorisation sets, then records the corresponding adjustment against your emissions balance and NDC, alongside the carbon budget and any Adaptation Fund transfer.
Generate the Agreed Electronic Format tables 1 to 5 as a workbook, the initial report and the annex to your biennial transparency report, straight from the ledger. The template follows the current draft and will track the final version.
The hub client is built and tested, with signed requests, TLS 1.3 and a full message log. It connects once the secretariat opens access. Until then, officers record each exchange with evidence, and a second officer confirms it.
A separate, read-only site shows approved projects and their design documents, registry totals, Article 6 activity and the ledger anchors, without an account.
Anyone can enter a serial number and see the unit’s status, vintage, type and project. Holders and quantities are never shown.
Designed to publish project and unit data to the Climate Action Data Trust, starting on its test network, and only after the DNA records its decision to publish.
Start with a domestic registry and add the Article 6 modules when your country is ready. Modules are chosen per deployment, and the services refuse to start with an inconsistent set.
Set fees for concept notes, design documents, issuance, transfers and corresponding adjustments. Payers upload proof of payment and officers verify it; refunds always need a second officer. A national payment gateway plugs in through a documented adapter.
How one mitigation project moves through the registry, in the order the registry enforces. Steps 6 and 7 apply when the Article 6 modules are on.
Who acts at each step is named under it.
The developer submits a project concept note and pays the application fee. Officers review it, return it for changes or approve it.
Developer, registry officers
The full design document goes through technical review, with committees or review panels where needed. Approval issues a serialised letter of approval.
Developer, reviewers, DNA
The project starts work and records implementation details, community agreements and supporting documents.
Developer
The developer reports monitoring results with signed declarations and technical and financial performance, and officers review them.
Developer, registry officers
After the issuance review, units are issued with unique serial numbers into the developer’s holding account, with any buffer contribution set aside.
Registry officers, second officer
The DNA authorises mitigation outcomes for international use under a cooperative approach, as a versioned record.
DNA, second officer
When the authorisation’s trigger is met, the first transfer is recorded and the corresponding adjustment is applied and queued for AEF reporting.
Registry, DNA
Units move between holding accounts or are used or cancelled for good, each movement confirmed by a second officer where the rules require it.
Account holders, registry officers
The approved project, the unit’s status and the day’s ledger anchor appear on the public portal, where anyone can verify a serial number.
Anyone
ARC is modular. A country chooses a profile when it deploys, then adds or removes single modules as its policy changes.
For a domestic or voluntary carbon market run by the DNA.
Everything in Domestic, plus what a Party needs to transfer mitigation outcomes internationally.
A wider Article 6 profile adds acquiring units from other Parties and the UNFCCC hub client.
Planning a registry for your country? Write to contact@arc-ncr.com.
