BidCarbon Removal Units

BidCarbon Removal Units (BRUs) represent an advancement over traditional carbon credit units (CCUs). A BRU is a standardised data unit. The economic substance of a BRU is that of a carbon credit: it represents verified carbon removal or avoidance equivalent to one tonne of CO₂-e. It is issued to a person by the Technical Governance Committee (Unit Working Body) by making an entry for the unit in that person's account within the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry (BUC Registry) . 

A BRU functions solely as an underlying data layer. It is not tradeable on its own, nor does it constitute a financial instrument or independent market asset. Its sole purpose is to be embedded into a higher-level structured data product — a Carbon Data Rights Certificate (CDRC) — for circulation, application (including carbon offsetting), or value transfer.

About BidCarbon Removal Units

BRUs are issued to individuals or businesses who run eligible projects under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme.

Activities are carried out as eligible offsets projects. You must meet eligibility criteria to register a project. There are also ongoing monitoring, reporting and auditing requirements.

Find out more about how to participate in the BidCarbon Standard Scheme.

Earning BRUs

You are the registered holder of an BRU if you are the entity in whose BUC Registry account there is an entry for that unit.

If an entity holds an BRU on behalf of another entity (as their nominee), the entity on whose behalf the unit is held, is taken to hold the unit, not the nominee.

You hold the unit from the date it is registered in your name.

However, when assessing assets, the registered holder may commission registered agents to create and sell CDRCs. If an entity holds a BRU on behalf of another entity (as its nominee), it does not have the right to commission registered agents to apply for and sell CDRCs.

Who is the holder of an BRU?

The core activity for participants is the transformation of underlying carbon emission reduction data resources into tradable data assets. This follows the pathway outlined below:

● Data Product Encapsulation: Participants may apply via the BUC Registry, submitting the required supporting documentation, to encapsulate BidCarbon Removal Units (BRUs)—standardised measurement units of emissions reduction data—into Carbon Data Rights Certificates (CDRCs), which function as structured data products.

● Data Asset Trading: CDRCs, as compliant and structured data products, may be traded on the Open Market or the BidCarbon Marketplace. Their value is determined by market supply and demand, reflecting the economic valuation of verified emissions reduction data assets.

1. Avenues for Realising Data Value

Depending on their circumstances, participants may choose between the following two avenues to realise the value of their data:

Avenue 1: Digital Disclosure for Carbon Neutrality and Carbon Offset

The sale of CDRCs enables purchasers to acquire verified BRUs for offsetting emissions, with the units permanently retired in the registry to ensure uniqueness, traceability and non-reusability.

Avenue 2: Contractual Transfer of Data Resources.

Alternatively, participants may opt not to self-encapsulate products. Instead, they may transfer their BRUs at a fixed price to the BidCarbon Climate Trading Company via a 'carbon removal contract'. The company then undertakes subsequent data productisation and development.

2. Legal and Commercial Characterisation of Data Asset Transactions

Within this data assetisation framework, different tiers of data handling are distinctly characterised:

Transfer at the Data Resource Layer (BRU): The issuance and transfer of BRUs are treated as compliant circulation of underlying data resources, and are not directly classified as a supply of goods or services.

Sale at the Data Product Layer (CDRC): The sale of a CDRC is legally recognised as a commercial contract for the sale of goods with the data product as its subject matter. This constitutes the formal entry of the data resource into the assetisation transaction phase.

3. Sourcing and Supplying Data Assets

Market participants can acquire CDRCs through the following channels:

Primary Market: By establishing and operating a project under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme, participants can autonomously generate BRUs and apply to encapsulate them into CDRCs, thereby becoming suppliers of the data product.

Secondary Market: By searching the Certificates Market Register, participants can identify and purchase CDRCs from the available market supply.

Buying and selling BRUs

Participants running BidCarbon Standard Scheme projects may have to relinquish BRUs in the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry if they were issued:

● based on false or misleading information, or

● for a sequestration offsets project that has had its registration revoked, or 

● for a sequestration offsets project with a complete or partial reversal of sequestration.

Moreover, participants can voluntarily relinquish BRUs to:

● terminate a sequestration offsets project

● terminate a carbon maintenance obligation for a project area.

A court may order a person to relinquish BRUs where issued in circumstances involving fraud.

If a person is required to relinquish BRUs, the number of BRUs to be relinquished can be deducted from any BRUs that are to be issued to them. This way, the person will be considered to have relinquished the necessary number of BRUs without any additional action required.

Once a BRU in a registered CDRC has been relinquished, that CDRC is invalidated.

Relinquishing BRUs

Cancelling BRUs

BUC Registry account holders can voluntarily cancel an BRU to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Following cancellation, the BRU entry will be removed from the BUC Registry account and permanently cancelled.

When cancelling an BRU, account holders can provide a comment attributing the emission offset to a specific project registered under the BidCarbon Standard Scheme. This comment will be included in a voluntary cancellation verification certificate upon request. For this reason, the comment can’t be changed once the voluntary cancellation is approved.

If an BUC Registry account is closed for failing to comply with the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry Standard 2025 or the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry Rule 2025, any BRUs held in the account will be permanently cancelled.

For detailed information on the tax treatment of BRUs and CDRCs, please consult your national tax authority’s website. However, BidCarbon Big Data Chengdu Limited discloses transaction information in accordance with the requirements of the State Taxation Administration of the People's Republic of China.

Tax treatment of CDRCs

Before the issuance of a Carbon Data Rights Certificate (CDRC), a BidCarbon Removal Unit (BRU) is considered personal property.

The registered holder of a BRU is the person whose BUC Registry account contains the BRU entry. They are the legal owner and may, subject to the BidCarbon (Carbon Farming) Standard 2025 and the BidCarbon Unit and Certificate Registry Standard 2025, transfer good title of the BRU to another person.

The register may be corrected in certain circumstances, including to comply with a court order to rectify errors resulting from fraudulent conduct. If a BRU is transferred before a defect is detected, the recipient will have good title provided they acquired it in good faith for value from the registered holder and without notice of the defect. A person who acquired the BRU without purchasing it in good faith for value (for example, as a gift), or who was aware of the defect, will not have good title.

The Carbon Farming Standard does not prevent the creation, enforcement, or dealings with equitable interests in BRUs. It is possible for a holder to grant security over a BRU (for example, as collateral for a loan) or to hold a BRU on behalf of others under a trust or other beneficial ownership arrangement.

Property rights in BRUs

Exchange of BidCarbon Removal Units for labeled international units

We actively participate in the recognition of our methodologies by third-party assessment bodies. Where a version of a methodology is approved, a person holding BidCarbon Removal Units issued from a project using that approved version may instruct the Unit Working Body to exchange those units for labeled international units in accordance with the rules. Different exchange rules apply to different types of labeled international units.

Each BRU is cryptographically anchored to a blockchain, where its unique identifier is permanently recorded as evidence of data integrity. Within the Registry, BRUs may be viewed and filtered by attribute.

BRU attributes in the registry