Unlocking corporate demand for carbon removal starts with clear guidance
Participants at the Carbon Removal Policy Summit agreed that Commission-backed CRCF guidance could unlock corporate demand for permanent carbon removals.
The Carbon Removal Policy Summit in Brussels on 16 September was one of the biggest gathering of the European CDR community to date, with over 200 participants coming together to discuss all things CDR. During the event, the European Commission, EFRAG, the Nordic Carbon Removal Association (NCRA), and Deloitte organised a working session on public-private purchasing and market creation.
At the Carbon Removal Policy Summit, the working session on public-private purchasing and market creation looked at the difficulties that current and prospective buyers face, with a focus on CRCF use cases and guidance. Buyers must navigate a complex regulatory landscape governing corporate communications and claims, where the perceived risk of greenwashing accusations and legal exposure can stand in the way of purchases.
Valter Selén, Secretary General of the NCRA and contributor at Carbon Gap, presented a proposal for how to incentivise corporate purchases of high-quality permanent carbon removals verified under the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF) by providing Commission-approved communication guidance. EFRAG also provided an overview of what this legislation could look like. After the presentations, workshop participants were invited to provide comments and suggestions to help advance the guidance and make it fit for purpose. This blog shares three reflections from the discussions and explains what's next for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) corporate claims guidance.
Why corporate buyers matter now more than ever in building the CDR industry
The EU has made real progress on the rules for CDR over the past year. In February 2026, the Commission adopted the first methodologies under the CRCF for certifying permanent removals, covering direct air capture with carbon storage (DACCS), biogenic emissions capture with carbon storage (Bio-CCS), and biochar carbon removal. Methodologies for three carbon farming activities followed in July 2026.
The Commission's proposed review of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), published on 17 July 2026, represents the first time the EU will directly support CDR through dedicated purchases. The proposal would see a Commission purchasing facility buying 250 million tonnes of CDR between 2031 and 2040, paid by selling and retiring an equivalent number of emission allowances. Bio-CCS and DACCS are the two eligible methods.
Public purchasing on this scale sends a strong signal that CDR is the future. However, having the required volumes ready and available to purchase in 2031 will require building and scaling up a strong European CDR industry. Private buyers provide essential short-term demand, support the initial business case for up-front investments, and are therefore essential to getting projects built. Unfortunately, the incentive for companies to buy carbon removals is lacking. Uncertainty on how to communicate purchases and which credits to buy are getting in the way of potential purchases being made in the first place.
There is clear agreement that buyers need more guidance
Companies that want to buy CDR need help getting started. The good news is that hands-on guidance, supported by the European Commission, would go a long way to address these concerns and unlock untapped corporate demand. An NCRA outlook finds that 70% of buyers would increase spending on permanent CDR if additional guidance were made available. Two-thirds of surveyed buyers cite clear net-zero standards as a purchase motivator, and the share of companies buying removals would double if reputational and legal risks were addressed.
Workshop participants agreed that guidance could lower the barriers to entry by setting out how the European Commission, Member States, and other actors see the "rules of the road". This alignment is itself worth emphasising: everyone in the room saw clear guidance as an important step.
The session provided a means to kickstart work to draft guidance together with industry and civil society, initiating the process to encourage much-needed corporate demand.
The focus and shape of the guidance is still to be decided
But what should the guidance have as its goal? Should it have a legal or non-legal basis? What can it be used for, and what are its limits in the current political context? For example, the guidance could cover both EU legislation and existing standards such as SBTi and ISO. The answers to these questions are not yet settled, which means industry and civil society can still provide input. and
Regardless, the workshop was an important step towards deciding the scope, nature, and use case of forthcoming guidance.
Looking ahead: what the CDR community can do together
The Commission has already begun work on buyer guidance, and participants welcomed that progress. The forthcoming Deloitte report on next steps, together with Carbon Gap's and NCRA's own work, will inform that work and help carry it forward.
Demand-side initiatives are also taking shape. In her closing remarks, Summit rapporteur Eve Tamme pointed to new ways of creating demand at EU level, including the EU CRCF Buyers Club (soon to be renamed the EU Buyers Coalition) and a public purchasing programme. At the CRCF Days in May 2026, stakeholders discussed a possible early-2027 launch of the Buyers Club's carbon farming track. Clear buyer guidance would help initiatives like these succeed.
The obstacles facing buyers are real, but they are surmountable. Having CDR volumes ready and available by 2031 means the work has to start now, and no single actor can do it alone. Industry, civil society, and the Commission each hold part of the solution, and the willingness to work on it together was clear in the room. It is now up to all stakeholders to make that work a success.