The two codes in brief
| Woodland Carbon Code | Peatland Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Run by | Scottish Forestry, on behalf of the UK, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments | IUCN UK Peatland Programme |
| Launched | 2011; version 3.0 from 1 August 2025 | 2015; version 2 in 2023, version 2.1 in November 2024 |
| What a verified unit is | A tonne of CO2e removed from the air by new woodland | A tonne of CO2e emissions saved by restoring damaged peat |
| Pending unit | Pending Issuance Unit (PIU) | Pending Issuance Unit (PIU) |
| Verified unit | Woodland Carbon Unit (WCU) | Peatland Carbon Unit (PCU) |
| Registry | The UK Land Carbon Registry, shared by both codes since 2020 | |
Woodland units are removals: growing trees take CO2 out of the air. Peatland units are mostly avoided emissions: damaged peat releases carbon, and rewetting it stops that. The difference matters for net zero claims, as our post on offsets versus removals explains.
Pending units versus verified units
Trees take decades to grow, so most of what is on sale is a promise. Under the Woodland Carbon Code:
- A Pending Issuance Unit is a promise to deliver a Woodland Carbon Unit in the future, based on predicted growth. It isn't guaranteed and can't be used to report against your emissions. It lets you plan to compensate for future emissions and say you are supporting woodland creation.
- A Woodland Carbon Unit is a tonne of CO2e that has been removed and independently verified. It can be used to report against UK-based emissions once it is retired on the registry in your name.
Projects are verified at year 5 and at least every ten years after that. When a woodland passes, some of its pending units convert into verified units. Each project puts 20% of its verified units into a shared buffer that covers losses from fire, disease or failure, which is why verified units are described as guaranteed. The Peatland Code works the same way: verification five years after restoration and at least every ten years after that.
Verified units are scarce. From the sales reported to it, the Woodland Carbon Code estimates that over 99% of woodland units sold were Pending Issuance Units, and at least 99% of Peatland Code units too. If you need to report against this year's emissions, ask any seller exactly which kind of unit you would be buying.
What they cost
There is no set price. The Woodland Carbon Code publishes average reported prices from a small number of voluntary responses:
- Woodland Pending Issuance Units: a volume-weighted average of £28.32 in 2025, up from £26.85 in 2024.
- Peatland Pending Issuance Units: an average of £39.57 in 2025, from a small sample influenced by three large deals.
- Verified units: not enough sales yet to publish an average for either code.
Treat these as a guide only. Price varies with the project, the vintage (when the units are expected to be verified) and the serial number.
A worked example
Say an office uses 60,000 kWh of gas a year for heating. At the 2026 government factor that is 10.94 tonnes CO2e of Scope 1. To compensate for that one year with UK woodland, you would need 11 verified Woodland Carbon Units, retired in your name, because one unit is one tonne.
Pending units wouldn't do: they can't be reported against this year's emissions. And either way, the 10.94 tonnes stays in your reported Scope 1. Replacing the boiler with a heat pump when it is due cuts the emissions themselves, which is what a Carbon Reduction Plan is looking for.
How to report them
The government's Environmental Reporting Guidelines say to report your gross emissions, and, if you buy units, to show a net figure as well as, never instead of, the gross one. Woodland Carbon Units go on their own line, separate from overseas carbon credits, with:
- the tonnes of CO2e per year;
- the project name or ID, with a link to its documentation;
- the date the units were retired, with a link to the registry's proof of retirement.
The guidelines explain that Woodland Carbon Units are not termed offsets or carbon credits, because, like all domestic projects, they don't meet every aspect of international additionality rules. That doesn't make them inappropriate to buy; it is about how the UK counts its national emissions. The Woodland Carbon Code also notes that corresponding adjustments under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement are not applied to its units, and that they can't be used in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.
What you can say
Both codes publish example wording, and the Competition and Markets Authority's Green Claims Code applies to anything you say to consumers. In short:
- Pending units: say you have bought them, from which project, and when they are expected to be verified. Don't say they offset or balance your current emissions.
- Verified units: say how many, from which project, for which year's UK emissions, with the registry link.
- Either way: lead with the emissions you have measured and cut, and don't call the business carbon neutral on the strength of them. Our post on net zero versus carbon neutral explains why.
For credit quality in general, see our guide to carbon offsetting for business. If the projects you care about are in your own supply chain, our post on insetting versus offsetting covers that route.
How Carbon Recycling helps
Carbon Recycling reports your gross Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions with the government conversion factors, so you know exactly how many tonnes you are talking about before you consider any units. It never nets units off your figures, and its Carbon Reduction Plan shows reductions against your baseline. We don't sell or broker Woodland Carbon Code or Peatland Code units.