The EU Green Claims Directive (GCD) was suspended in June 2025. Many companies took that as a signal that scrutiny had eased. It hadn't. The GCD was designed to harmonize a fragmented regulatory landscape, and suspending it didn't remove the rules - it scattered them.

The obligations governing how companies communicate carbon credit use are already in force, being enforced, and in some markets, being litigated.

This guide is for enterprise sustainability, ESG, legal, and procurement teams who need to know where they stand in 2026. It covers the full claiming landscape — from mandatory reporting frameworks like CSRD, EmpCo, and the UWG, to voluntary standards like SBTi and VCMI — and explains how they interact, where they align, and what they require from corporate buyers.

It covers:

1. What is the current landscape: Legal framework and mandatory vs. voluntary reporting
2. Mandatory compliance: Reporting rules and anti-greenwashing schemes
3. Voluntary reporting: Corporate frameworks and standards
4. The power of synergy: Maximizing efficiencies across frameworks
5. The weight of credit quality: How standards are increasing the quality threshold
6. Practical tools: Checklists for compliance
7. International snapshot (US, UK, and Switzerland): Global greenwashing accusation risk
8. Conclusion: Translating carbon claims into a credibility advantage

You can download this guide for free here.