1. Does it count for you?

CRCF certifies the tonne. Whether that tonne is worth anything to your company is decided elsewhere, by the accounting and claims rules you report under.

Five layers. Work out which apply to you before you look at projects.

1. Inventory and accounting. The GHG Protocol governs how emissions and removals enter your books. Its Land Sector and Removals Standard was published in January 2026, with guidance in June 2026, and applies to reporting from 1 January 2027. It is the foundation and applies whether or not you set validated targets. Forestry is being handled separately.
2. Targets. The SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard sets what you may count toward a net zero target, with sectoral tracks such as FLAG for companies with significant land and agriculture emissions. Voluntary, and only binding if you seek validation.
3. Mandatory disclosure. CSRD and ESRS E1 in the EU. Gross Scope 1 to 3 stays unadjusted, removals are reported separately. This is law, not choice.
4. Public claims. What you may say in marketing is governed by EU rules on environmental claims, separately from what you may report. We do not track this layer in detail, treat it as a legal question for your own counsel.
5. Compliance. The EU ETS and Article 6. No adopted compliance demand for CRCF units today, see part 4.

What SBTi decided

The final SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0, published in June 2026, keeps CRCF units eligible for neutralisation. An earlier draft would have excluded removals that count toward the EU NDC. The final text turned this into a duty to report the authorisation status, plus a recommendation to avoid double-claimed removals. It becomes mandatory for new targets from 2028.

The question that is still open

This matters most if you have farmland or biomass in your own supply chain. If a farmer in your value chain sells a CRCF unit, can you still claim the same tonne as a Scope 3 reduction? CRCF prevents the same unit being sold twice, through the registry due by the end of 2028. It does not settle the corporate accounting side. Industry bodies are pressing the Commission on exactly this. Until it is settled, do not build a plan that depends on counting the same tonne twice.

2. Choose the unit that fits the claim

Start from what you need to say, then pick the method. Permanence is the deciding difference.

Start from the claim

• CSRD reporting. Under ESRS E1, gross Scope 1 to 3 stays unadjusted. CRCF units are reported separately and are not netted against your emissions.
• Neutralisation under a net zero target. This usually needs permanent removal units, not temporary carbon farming units.
• A contribution claim. A public statement like "we fund European carbon removal" gives you more freedom, but the unit type still sets how strong and how durable that claim is.

One limit to know: CRCF units count toward EU climate goals and the EU NDC, not toward third-country NDCs or CORSIA.

The four unit types

• Permanent removals from DACCS, BioCCS (BECCS) and biochar. Centuries, do not expire. The strongest basis for a neutralisation claim, because they do not reverse.
• Carbon farming from soils, afforestation and forestry, and peatland rewetting. Temporary sequestration, at least 5 years. Real climate value, but reversible, so a weaker neutralisation basis. Many net zero frameworks do not accept them to neutralise residual emissions.
• Storage in products, for example mineralisation in building materials. Durable, at least 35 years, so it sits in between.
• Soil emission reduction units, a fourth type, reduce emissions rather than remove carbon.

Practical takeaway: if you need to neutralise residual emissions for a net zero target, budget for permanent removals. Use temporary farming and forestry units for contribution claims and to support European agriculture, not as a substitute for permanent removal.

3. What it costs today

No CRCF price exists yet, so treat everything below as orders of magnitude, not quotes.

Voluntary-market proxies as broad ranges, in US dollars per tonne:

• Biochar, roughly 125 to 270.
• BioCCS (BECCS), a few hundred.
• DACCS, roughly 500 to over 1000.
• Carbon farming and forestry, lower, often temporary units.

Orders of magnitude from the voluntary market, not CRCF prices, and not sourced to a single point in time. For live, sourced pricing see CDR.fyi and the State of CDR report.

4. Where demand is heading

The biggest open question for prices and availability. We keep the levels strictly apart.

The compliance link

• Decided. The 2040 climate law gives domestic permanent removals a directional role under the EU ETS. The operative mechanism is not yet legislated.
• Proposed. On 17 July 2026 the Commission proposed integrating permanent removals into the EU ETS: 250 million allowances over 2031 to 2040, auctioned to centrally buy CRCF-certified BioCCS and DACCS. Now heading into Parliament and Council with a likely conclusion around Q1 2027, not yet adopted.
• In discussion. Linking CRCF units to the allowance price, a separate Union target for removals, and how the design lands in the final law.

Read the headline number carefully: 250 million is allowances, not tonnes of removals. The revenue buys an equivalent amount, so how much CDR it actually funds depends on the price gap in the 2030s and could be materially less than 250 Mt.

So buying early is partly a bet that this integration arrives. Honest framing: it is proposed, not decided, and the negotiations run into 2027. We track every move on the feed.

Why buyers engage now anyway

• CSRD reporting evidence.
• Supply security and price fixing through multi-year offtakes.
• Regulatory preparation, including a possible future ETS link.
• Local European quality and a credible story.

One concrete route is the EU Buyers' Club, the Commission's voluntary market platform for CRCF units. It went live in 2026 with an open survey for companies to register buying interest, and targets an initial set of permanent-removal purchases by December 2026.

International credits and Article 6

CRCF is the European, domestic route. The EU 2040 climate target proposes allowing up to 3 percent international carbon credits from 2036, aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. That is a proposed amendment to the European Climate Law, still in discussion, not an operative mechanism. A realistic European strategy is a CRCF-aligned domestic core, with international Article 6 credits possible for a limited portion once the rules settle.

Source: White & Case. Status: proposed, in discussion.

5. Buying well

Good practice for a first purchase, and how to read our labels.

• Start from the claim, then pick the method, not the other way round.
• Prefer EU project locations if CRCF eligibility matters to you. You see it on each profile.
• Favour registry-verified projects over developer-stated ones, and ask for the registry link.
• Use multi-year offtakes to lock supply and price while the market is young.
• Document everything for CSRD, keep removals separate from gross emissions.

How we label status

• CRCF eligibility depends on the project location being in an EU member state, not on where the developer is based.
• Status is three-tiered: developer-stated, registry-verified, CRCF-certified. The first CRCF-certified units are expected from late 2026, so almost nothing is certified yet. The chain of trust explains why.

Background reading and primary sources are on our useful links page, common questions on the FAQ.

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