Exam Payment & Registration Process:
  1. If you are not an ACCO premium member and have not already paid for an exam package, select a pricing package and process your payment (credit cards and PayPal accepted).
  2. Sign and submit the Non-Disclosure Agreement to exams@ACCOonline.org.
  3. Submit a request to access the exam(s) when you are prepared to take the exam(s).
  4. ACCO will send you instructions on how to access each exam.
  5. Once you begin an exam module, you will have 75 minutes to complete that module (unless otherwise stated in the instructions you receive).
  6. Upon completion of each exam, you will receive the results on the exam site (ACCO will also maintain records of all test results).
  7. After completing all four exam modules and elective requirements, you can proceed with submitting your application and supporting materials.

ACCO has simplified the process for you to earn the Certified Climate Change Professional® (CC-P®) credential. With 4 exam modules, you can plan and map your progress toward becoming a Certified Climate Change Professional® (CC-P®) today!

  1. Climate Science & Vulnerability Assessment

  2. GHG, Energy & Water Management

  3. Governance, Law & Policy

  4. Materiality, Risk Management & Economics

Showcase yourself as a climate smart professional with the capacity to develop and implement climate action plans. 

Exam Topics & Recommended Prep Materials

You are not required to take any courses in advance of these exams, though ACCO has listed recommended prep materials for each exam module.  The following information provides a short description, focal points and recommended prep materials for each exam module. Exams must be completed within one year of the date in which participant’s final CC-P® application is submitted (i.e. exams that fall outside the one-year window will be deemed expired and must be retaken).

Exam #1

Assesses your understanding of climate science, climate impacts on human and natural systems, and capacity to conduct vulnerability assessments and inform organizational or regional decision making with critical resources.

  • Weather, climate variability, and climate change

  • Recent decadal-scale changes in climate and their impacts

  • Climate forcings and feedbacks, their relative importance and certainty

  • Scientific basis for projections of ongoing climate change; major impacts and corresponding certainty

  • Scientific studies on public opinion;  communication about climate science to diverse audiences

  • The diverse elements of climate impacts and their projected consequences for human and natural systems 

  • Intersections and synergies possible from climate impacts among natural systems and between changing natural systems and human systems

  • Identifying climate-related hazards

  • Vulnerability and risk

  • Data, tools, and technology to perform a vulnerability assessment

  • Process for conducting a vulnerability assessment

Recommended prep materials:
Climate-101, Climate-105 & Climate-201

Estimated prep time:
8 hours

Exam time limit:
75 minutes

Exam #2

Examines your grasp of greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting, related reporting, and the role of GHG and natural resource management in an organization’s operations.

Assesses your understanding of the relationships between water, energy, and food systems using a nexus viewpoint to inform GHG management.

Examines your knowledge about the structure of GHG mitigation targets, motivations for setting them, and methods for doing so.

  • Value of conducting a GHG inventory

  • Accounting for GHG emissions and understanding common protocols

  • Common regulatory and voluntary reporting frameworks

  • Boundaries for accounting and reporting

  • Collecting, measuring, reporting and disclosing GHG emissions

  • Driving operational improvements/change

  • Inventory verification and accuracy

  • Nexus perspective on energy-water-food system interdependencies

  • Implications of the interdependencies for management of natural resources and GHG emissions

  • Interrelationships of energy-water-food systems with global trends, climate change, and GHG emissions

  • Elements of GHG mitigation targets (Goal types, boundaries, etc.)

  • Motivations for setting reduction targets

  • Understanding the methods available for developing targets

Recommended prep materials:
GHG-101, GHG-102 & GHG-201

Estimated prep time:
8 hours

Exam time limit:
75 minutes

Exam #3

Tests your comprehension of fundamentals of organizational change and stakeholder engagement best practices; the changing International, North American, and subnational climate policy landscapes and its organizational implications; professional ethics, morals, liability, obligations, and aspirations of climate professionals; and how ACCO’s Code of Ethics supports the elements of professionalism for climate professionals.

  • Understanding the fundamentals of organizational and behavioral change strategies and tactics

  • Gaining a practical understanding of options, possibilities, organizational structures, and processes to advance change

  • Understanding the entire stakeholder engagement processing, including stakeholder identification, motivation/values, engagement, and mobilization.

  • Fostering a culture of adaptive capacity within an organization

  • Understanding the international, U.S. national, and local legal/policy landscape on climate change and their climate implications for an organization/business and related cost/mission impacts

  • Structuring a climate action plan/strategy, including identifying and leveraging policy-related risks and opportunities for an organization as well as understanding the importance of assessing existing internal/external goals and objectives

  • Understanding professional ethics, morals, liability, obligations, and aspirations of climate professionals.

  • Understanding how ACCO’s Code of Ethics supports the elements of professionalism for climate professionals.

Recommended prep materials:
Governance-101, Governance-102 & Governance-103

Estimated prep time:
8 hours

Exam time limit:
75 minutes

Exam #4

Gauges your awareness of the economic implications of climate change; concepts needed to undertake economic assessments of climate impacts and proposed actions to mitigate them or to exploit opportunities they create; available economic models and tools; and how to apply them. Assesses your understanding of the outsized impact of climate risk on organizational operations and value as well as the context, framework, and principles of risk analysis, management, and disclosure, including within the framework of Enterprise Risk Management and increasing focus on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues.

  • Economic impacts of climate change from global to organizational

  • Economic paradigms and concepts

  • Models and tools (e.g., cost-benefit analysis) to quantify costs and potential benefits of climate change and of mitigation and adaptation options

  • Value and limitations of existing economic analysis models

  • Process for conducting an economic impact assessment

  • Assessing and managing climate risk and associated impacts, such as physical, regulatory, market, investment, and insurance, among others 

  • Understanding that climate risk offers the potential for threats as well as new opportunities from a changing climate and society’s response to change

  • Understanding materiality, its legal definition and reporting frameworks, and the value of the materiality assessment process in risk management

  • Leveraging tools, methods, and techniques for quantifying climate change risk and impacts and implementing meaningful disclosure.

Recommended prep materials:
Climate-201, Enterprise-201 & Economics-101

Estimated prep time:
8 hours

Exam time limit:
75 minutes