The EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework.
A plain-language overview for buyers, built from primary sources.
1. The basics
What the framework is, what it produces, and how the rules are made.
What CRCF is
CRCF is the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework, Regulation (EU) 2024/3012. The Commission itself writes the acronym out as Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming, and the legal title is longer again: a Union certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming and carbon storage in products, adopted on 27 November 2024. All three names mean the same regulation. It is voluntary, applies across the EU, sets quality and certification rules, and entered into force on 26 December 2024. The detailed rules per activity come as delegated acts.
The four CRCF unit types
- Permanent carbon removal units, from DACCS, BioCCS and biochar, lasting centuries, do not expire.
- Carbon farming sequestration units, from soil and biomass, temporary, at least 5 years.
- Soil emission reduction units.
- Carbon storage in products units, at least 35 years.
How CRCF quality compares
The CRCF did not invent new quality criteria. The same questions appear in the GHG Protocol and in the Core Carbon Principles of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). What differs is who sets them and what they bind.
| The question | CRCF, Regulation (EU) 2024/3012 | GHG Protocol, Requirement 29 | ICVCM Core Carbon Principles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is the tonne measured correctly? | Art. 4, Quantification | Credible baseline, monitoring, leakage mitigation | Robust quantification of emission reductions and removals |
| Would it have happened anyway? | Art. 5, Additionality | Additionality | Additionality |
| Does the carbon stay stored? | Art. 6, Storage, monitoring and liability | Permanence | Permanence |
| Does it cause harm elsewhere? | Art. 7, Sustainability | Sustainable development benefits and safeguards | Sustainable development benefits and safeguards |
| Is each tonne counted once? | Art. 12, Union registry and certification registries | Unique issuance and claiming | No double-counting; Tracking |
| Who checks? | Art. 9 and 10, certification audits by certification bodies | Independent validation and verification | Robust independent third-party validation and verification |
| Who oversees the system? | Art. 13, recognition of certification schemes by the Commission | GHG program governance | Effective governance; Transparency |
The ICVCM adds a tenth principle with no counterpart in the other two: contribution toward the net zero transition.
- The CRCF is law. An EU regulation, applied by certification bodies under schemes the Commission recognises, with a Union registry due by the end of 2028. Taking part is voluntary, the rules are not.
- The GHG Protocol is accounting. Requirement 29 lists the criteria a credit must meet if a company reports it alongside its inventory. It does not certify anything.
- The ICVCM is a voluntary benchmark. It assesses crediting programmes and methodologies and labels them CCP-Eligible or CCP-Approved. See Step 3 below for which CRCF applicants already hold that label.
How a methodology becomes law
Each methodology runs through the same path. This matters for reading the tracker below, because a methodology that is adopted is not yet in force.
- Expert group draft
- Public consultation
- Opinion
- Adoption by the Commission as a delegated act
- Two months scrutiny by Parliament and Council
- Publication in the Official Journal
- Entry into force 20 days later
2. Who does what
Who makes the rules, who certifies, who checks, and how they connect. Tap an institution to see its partners and the people behind it.
Outside the CRCF. What a buyer may claim about a tonne is decided by the GHG Protocol, SBTi and CSRD, not by any institution above.
Three roles hold the CRCF together. The EU sets the rules, certification schemes apply them, and independent verifiers check every single project. The Commission is the switchboard: it writes the methodologies and decides which scheme may certify. Tap an institution to see who it works with and who is behind it.
And how far each family has come
The same six steps, now per unit type. Everyone clears step one, then it depends what you make.
Six steps, four families. Every family clears step 1 and then they split: permanent removals wait for a recognised scheme, carbon farming still waits for its methodology to enter into force.
3. Where it stands today As of 25 October 2026
The detail behind steps 2 to 5 of the line above, from the primary sources. Almost nothing is certified yet, and that reflects timing, not weak demand. Movements land on the feed.
Step 2. Methodologies
Where each CRCF method sits, from early exploration to in force. Permanent removals are in force. The carbon farming methodologies were adopted on 10 July 2026 and enter into force once scrutiny and publication are complete.
Step 3. Certification schemes
Schemes are the standards that certify projects against the CRCF methodologies. A project cannot be certified until the Commission recognises the scheme behind it. Nine have applied, all are under technical assessment by the Commission.
Three of the nine applicants already hold a separate, voluntary quality label: Isometric, Puro.earth and Rainbow are CCP-Eligible under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), and two more have submitted. The two assessments are independent, and CCP-Eligible does not mean a scheme will be recognised under the CRCF. For a buyer who cannot wait for 2027, a programme that holds the one and has applied for the other is the closest bridge available today.
Step 4. Verifiers
The independent bodies (VVBs) that audit projects must be accredited to EN ISO/IEC 17065 for the CRCF scope, under Regulation 765/2008 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2358, and operate under a recognised scheme. Accreditation is only starting, so we do not list any CRCF-accredited verifiers yet. We will add them here as accreditations are published.
Step 5. Certified projects
The first CRCF-certified units are expected in 2027. Until a scheme is recognised and verifiers are accredited, no project can complete certification. Our directory shows where each European developer stands today, labelled honestly as developer-stated, registry-verified or CRCF-certified.
4. Demand and the compliance question
The easiest thing to overstate, so we keep the levels strictly apart.
Decided. The 2040 climate law (Council decision 5 March 2026) sets a binding 90 percent net reduction by 2040 and gives a directional role to domestic permanent removals under the 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. It is a proposal, heading into Parliament and Council with a likely conclusion around Q1 2027, and the clearest step yet toward compliance-linked demand.
One nuance the headlines miss: the 250 million is allowances, not tonnes of removals. The EU commits to auctioning them and spending the revenue on an equivalent amount of permanent removals, not to a fixed tonnage. How much CDR that buys depends on the price gap between allowances and removals in the 2030s, and could be materially less than 250 Mt. A 10 million allowance contingency reserve is meant to bridge part of that gap.
Biochar is left out, for now. The programme would buy only BioCCS and DACCS, even though biochar is the third permanent method with a CRCF methodology already in force. The Commission's own impact assessment states that biochar "will generate permanent removal units under the CRCF" and calls it the removal solution most ready for near-term deployment. Its reservations are that long-term research on decay rates is still thin, and that because biochar is cheaper than the alternatives, including it "could have a larger impact on the ETS market". The same annex notes biochar could be easier to handle through a public purchasing authority than through direct ETS integration, which is close to what the proposal actually builds. Expect this to be contested during the negotiations.
In discussion. Linking CRCF units to the allowance price, a separate Union target for permanent removals, and a possible future CRCF facility. None of these is decided.
Bottom line. There is no adopted compliance demand for CRCF units today, but the 17 July ETS proposal is the first concrete route to it. For the voluntary route already running, see the EU Buyers' Club.
5. Key dates
The milestones that decide when CRCF units exist and what they are worth.
Show what already happened, 9 milestones from 27 Nov 2024 on
- 27 Nov 2024 CRCF adopted done Regulation (EU) 2024/3012 adopted, in force from 26 December 2024.
- Nov 2025 Implementing Regulation on schemes and audits done Regulation (EU) 2025/2358 on certification schemes, certification bodies and audits.
- 3 Feb 2026 First delegated act for permanent removals done Delegated Regulation (EU) 2026/285 for DACCS, BioCCS and biochar, in force 7 May 2026.
- Jun 2026 EU Buyers' Club platform live done The Commission opened the Buyers' Club page and a survey to register buyer interest.
- 11 Jun 2026 SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 published done The final standard kept CRCF units eligible for neutralisation. An earlier draft would have excluded NDC-counted removals; the final text made this a duty to report the authorisation status plus a recommendation to avoid double-claimed removals.
- 10 Jul 2026 Carbon farming methodologies adopted done Delegated Regulation C(2026)4666 adopted on 10 July 2026 for mineral soils, peatland rewetting and afforestation. It enters into force after scrutiny by Parliament and Council and publication in the Official Journal.
- 17 Jul 2026 EU ETS revision proposed, with a permanent-removals mechanism done The Commission proposed adding 250 million allowances over 2031 to 2040, auctioned so the revenue centrally buys CRCF-certified BioCCS and DACCS. The removals back up the extra allowances rather than entering the ETS directly. A proposal, now entering Parliament and Council negotiations expected to conclude around Q1 2027.
- 31 Jul 2026 Commission report on ETS treatment of permanent removals due done The statutory report on accounting permanent removals in the ETS. The Commission has now gone further with a concrete mechanism in its 17 July ETS revision (see above).
- Q4 2026 Commission proposal on national climate targets done The Commission has said it will propose separate national targets for emission reductions and for carbon removals, with ETS integration and the voluntary CRCF market named as the key enablers.
- Q4 2026 Carbon storage in products methodology expected Methodology for durable storage in products, for example mineralisation in building materials.
- 10 Nov 2026 Next CRCF Expert Group meeting The expert group advising the Commission meets again. This is where the remaining methodologies are shaped, including improved forest management and livestock, which are not in the first package.
- Q4 2026 EIC and Innovation Fund calls open Five Innovation Fund calls open in December: net-zero technologies, a new SME call, a new maritime call, the second heat auction and the fourth hydrogen auction. Alongside them the Commission announced a first EIC Accelerator call dedicated to carbon removal, EUR 50 million in total, with grants up to EUR 2.5 million and investments between EUR 1 million and EUR 10 million, aimed at start-ups and SMEs. The EIC call was not yet published on the EIC site when we checked on 30 Sep 2026.
- Dec 2026 Innovation Fund SME call published A new call aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, EUR 200 million, for projects with capital expenditure between EUR 2.5 and 20 million. Designed with less paperwork, simplified greenhouse gas calculations and tolerance for higher-risk projects than the other Innovation Fund calls.
- By Dec 2026 EU Buyers' Club initial purchases of permanent removals The Commission's stated goal for the pilot year is to make and announce purchases from two to five projects, all of them permanent removals certified under CRCF.
- Dec 2026 Draft Commission guidance on using CRCF units The Commission is drafting guidance on how buyers may use CRCF units and what they may claim, covering three cases: neutralisation at the net-zero point, ongoing emissions responsibility during the transition, and value-chain reporting under scope 3. In its own survey this guidance was the single most requested form of support, ahead of everything else.
- 2027 First CRCF-certified units expected From here you can buy certified CRCF supply. The most important date for buyers.
- Early 2027 EU Buyers' Club carbon farming track operational The carbon farming track of the EU Buyers' Club starts operating, alongside the permanent removals track.
- Mar 2027 Final Commission guidance on using CRCF units Final version, after a workshop with standard setters in the first quarter of 2027 to align with reporting standards.
- End Mar 2027 First deadline, Innovation Fund SME call The SME call runs in two rounds. Missing the first is not fatal, the second closes at the end of September 2027.
- 27 Dec 2027 Commission reports on the application of the CRCF Article 18(2): by this date, and then within six months of each global stocktake, the Commission reports to Parliament and Council. Article 18(1) lists what the review weighs, including consistency with the ETS Directive and the LULUCF Regulation, permanent storage in third countries, the environmental impact of increased biomass use, food security and the cost of certification.
- 1 Feb 2028 SBTi V2.0 mandatory for new targets From early 2028 new science-based targets must follow V2.0. CRCF units stay eligible for neutralisation, with a duty to report their authorisation status.
- 27 Dec 2028 EU Union Registry to be established Central EU registry for certified units. Until then, recognised schemes keep their own registries.
5. First hand
The same questions, put to the people who advise on the framework and have to apply it.
We record long-form interviews and publish each one with the full video, chapters and a searchable transcript, so you can check the wording yourself instead of taking a summary on trust.