Driving scalable climate action: SustainCERT helps shape the World Bank’s guidance on Digital MRV
SustainCERT was invited to co-lead the World Bank’s Carbon Market Infrastructure Working Group on Digital MRV, building on our pioneering work in advancing credible, scalable digital verification.
Since 2021, we have been working on DMRV pilots with global standards bodies like Verra and Gold Standard, and sharing practical guidance through publications such as our Digital MRV and Principles for Best Practice Digital Verification papers. This work continues to shape how the market can adopt robust, cost-effective digital MRV at scale.
SustainCERT chaired the subgroup that developed the World Bank’s recent technical guidance note, “Standardizing DMRV Systems in Carbon Markets: System Evaluation Criteria and Hotspots Assessment”.
This note highlights the urgent need to create a new level playing field for digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (DMRV) in carbon markets – through standardized digital data collection, quantification requirements, and third-party digital verification. To truly benefit market actors such as project developers, DMRV must drive both scale and cost-effectiveness. Stakeholders need to rethink current standards, roles, and sequences of actions – not simply digitize a system that was designed two decades ago. Parallel processes enabled by DMRV for data collection, validation, and verification can support more frequent issuance of carbon credits while increasing transparency and accuracy.
The technical note is based on the work of the Carbon Markets Infrastructure Working Group (CMI WG), convened by the World Bank in 2024-2025. The group was established to identify key bottlenecks hindering the security, efficiency, and interoperability of carbon market infrastructure and to prioritize solutions. The International Association of Validation and Verification Bodies (IAVVB) supported the operations of the subgroup on digital MRV. The work reflects a collective effort — drawing on industry publications and a dedicated survey of carbon market stakeholders.
The technical note sets out to:
- Identify barriers to digital MRV adoption across technical, institutional, and regulatory domains
- Establish shared evaluation criteria for assessing DMRV systems based on transparency, cost-effectiveness, scalability, and accuracy
- Analyze priority workflow components—"DMRV hotspots”—that offer the greatest value
- Provide actionable recommendations to inform system design, stakeholder capacity-building, and standard-setting efforts.
This blog outlines the key findings and recommendations supporting the development of scalable and effective digital MRV systems for carbon markets.
Why digital MRV?
The transition to digital MRV systems represents a foundational shift required to scale carbon markets with integrity, speed, and transparency. Digital MRV addresses the limitations of conventional systems through automation, digital integration, and real-time validation, transforming how carbon credits are measured and verified across the project lifecycle. This shift is essential for overcoming current constraints while improving both efficiency and accuracy.
Standards bodies and regulatory institutions are already updating protocols to reflect these advances, signaling a systemic shift across the market.
Barriers to digital MRV adoption
The technical note identifies several market-wide shifts required for DMRV implementation and outlines the key adoption challenges, based on the stakeholder survey.
According to survey respondents, the biggest challenges include:
- Lack of technical expertise in the workforce
- Lack of clarity on what is permitted by existing standards
- Resistance to change among stakeholders
- High implementation costs
- Perceived system complexity
- Cybersecurity and data privacy concerns
Additional integrity risks and biases could affect the performance of DMRV systems. These include the “black box” nature of algorithms, unequal access to technology in developing regions, risks of data tampering, algorithmic bias, and potential conflict of interest.
DMRV system evaluation criteria
To benchmark digital MRV systems, the technical note introduces a structured set of evaluation criteria based on:
- Transparency
- Accuracy
- Cost-efficiency
- Scalability
- Accessibility.
These criteria are designed to support consistency across diverse DMRV initiatives while remaining adaptable to various levels of technical maturity. Importantly, the framework encourages a shift from fragmented innovation to structured learning and iterative improvement.
As DMRV systems continue to evolve, the consistent application of these criteria can help ensure that digital solutions are not only technically sound, but also transparent, inclusive, and aligned with global standards.
According to the stakeholder survey, the top priorities are cost reduction, improved transparency, and greater accuracy. Other cited benefits included scalability for global projects, faster reporting and certification, and stronger data security and integrity.
Digital MRV hotspots
The technical note presents a comparative assessment of workflow hotspots —areas where digitization could deliver the greatest value, especially where manual processes are slow, error-prone, or resource-intensive.
Four MRV workflows were identified as high-priority for digitization:
- Measurement and data storage
- Emission reduction (ER) calculations
- Third-party verification
- Reporting
Three key design insights emerge from this analysis:
(1) Conservative data handling: While DMRV introduces automation and real-time integration, systems must also ensure conservative treatment of data to maintain integrity.
(2) The need for rigorous validation of algorithms: DMRV introduces a shift from static, report-based reviews toward continuous, system-level verification.
(3) Challenges in verifying non-GHG information: elements such as stakeholder engagement, sustainability indicators and co-benefits (e.g. SDGs) remain difficult to digitize due to their qualitative nature, irregular frequency, and project-specific formats.
Recommendations from the Working Group
The technical note provides actionable recommendations based on both the working group’s discussions and the survey findings. These include both near-term interventions and systemic reforms to guide stakeholders in adapting standards, updating verification protocols, and building institutional capacity.
Immediate interventions to integrate with MRV systems:
- Digitized emission reduction calculations
- Secure and interoperable data collection
Systemic reforms for long-term transformation:
- Updates to standard-setting and methodologies
- Structural shifts in workflow design including system-level automation
- Decoupling GHG and non-GHG verification processes
Operationalizing digital MRV
The tools and frameworks outlined in this technical note offer practical guidance for carbon market actors—including standard bodies, validation and verification bodies (VVBs), project developers, digital solution providers, and regulators—to design DMRV systems that are robust, interoperable, and responsive to evolving market needs.
Collaboration is essential to prevent fragmentation and build a level playing field for digital MRV. As digital solutions mature and carbon markets expand, the collaborative work of the Carbon Market Infrastructure Working Group provides a shared reference point to harmonize efforts, improve transparency, and unlock climate finance. Continued learning, piloting, and iteration will be critical to ensure DMRV systems achieve their full potential.
Explore how digital MRV can scale carbon markets with integrity
Download the full World Bank technical guidance note to dive deeper into the tools and recommendations.