Who is the project proponent on my project?

The definition for project proponent is "the individual or organization that has overall control and responsibility for the project, or an individual or organization that together with others, each of which is also a project proponent, has overall control or responsibility for the project." Correctly identifying the project proponent is crucial in the VCS project registration process because:

1. The project proponent must sign the Registration Representation (in which the PP makes a unilateral representation standing behind the project description and the ERs that will stem from the project) and the Issuance Representation (in which the PP makes a unilateral representation standing behind the monitoring report and the ERs it is having issued). Thus, the VCS registry administrator needs to know exactly who the project proponent is, and therefore that the correct entity has signed these representations.

2. The project record on the VCS project database lists the project proponent, so again it is important that it is clear who that entity is.

Thus, a VCS Project Description must state who the project proponent is and the VCS validation report needs to confirm this. The Project Description must not call the project proponent a "project owner", "project participant" or anything else. It is acceptable to have multiple project proponents if there genuinely are multiple entities with control and responsibility for the project. Where a CDM PDD is used, the VCS validation report must make it clear who the project proponent is. Hence, if the PDD contains a number of project participants, the VCS validation report must make it clear who is the project proponent. To be clear, the carbon aggregator/consultant or the CER/VCU buyer is generally not the project proponent. Such entities generally do not have overall control and responsibility for the project and are not in a position to sign the Registration/Issuance Representations.