How businesses can achieve impact through carbon removal—and why they should start today

The science is clear: urgent climate action on all fronts is needed now. A credible net-zero strategy must include deep emission reductions and high-quality carbon removals.

This is the critical decade to rapidly scale carbon removal 

By 2050, the world will need an estimated 10 gigatonnes of high-quality carbon removal annually to achieve climate change mitigation targets. To address this need, demand must shift toward high-quality nature-based, biomass conversion, and engineered carbon removal methods like bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and direct air capture. Today, only 0.008 gigatonnes of CO2 are removed per year through high-quality carbon removals. The slower we mobilize finance and procurement to scale carbon removal efforts, the greater the gap and the needs become. At the current pace, we are nowhere near the estimated scale needed to limit global warming to 1.5 °C. 

Report: criteria for high-quality carbon dioxide removal >

The role of the private sector in leading the climate transition

The private sector has a critical role to play in accelerating the development of carbon removal solutions and driving quality in the market. Companies leading on climate actions are purchasing high-quality carbon removals today as part of their climate strategy to address residual emissions, remove historical emissions, and work toward net zero*. These companies are demonstrating climate leadership by driving the market impetus to grow these critical interventions. 

Buyers who enter the market now can gain first-mover advantage by not only locking in supply and competitive pricing but also setting into motion a sequential climate action plan that will deliver on both near- and long-term goals. And, the more buyers enter the market, driving the demand for high-quality carbon removals, the faster the market can accelerate the commercial scaling of carbon removal. Ultimately, this will help drive down costs and make the market viable. 

Here’s how you can join them.

Steer the carbon removal market by focusing on quality and impact

Quality remains a key challenge in the current voluntary carbon market. Today, just 3% of credits on the VCM are from pure carbon removal projects. And among the hundreds of projects that Carbon Direct has evaluated across all credit types, fewer than 10% of projects meet or exceed our standards. 

Focusing on quality is essential for achieving robust climate impact. Buyers can play a pivotal role in steering the voluntary carbon market in the direction of quality through their purchasing decisions. Canvassing the market, conducting deep technical diligence with science-backed criteria, identifying and mitigating risks specific to different carbon removal pathways, and monitoring portfolios over time all help to ensure that projects deliver on their carbon removal claims. In addition to climate impacts, purchasing carbon removal credits from high-quality projects can help businesses deliver on their broader impact goals, from protecting biodiversity to improving livelihoods.

Secure high-quality credits in the near-term 

In today’s voluntary carbon market, high-quality carbon removal projects are scarce and subject to market volatility. In this critical decade, multi-year purchasing of high-quality carbon removal projects allows companies to secure supply and lock in long-term competitive prices while helping activate the market and accelerate scale.

Looking ahead: from climate goals to credible actions

Ambitious climate goals must be backed by immediate, credible climate actions. 

The private sector has the opportunity to lead on the global net-zero transition by mobilizing climate financing today to bring high-quality carbon removal solutions into the market. By purchasing high-quality carbon removals across a range of project types, buyers are maximizing their impact while staying ahead of future carbon pricing policies and other market-based mechanisms. More importantly, these first movers are sending a clear demand signal to unlock and accelerate carbon removal at scale—a critical step toward global net zero.