What can we take away from the Commission's first CRCF Days?

The EU CRCF Days spanned two days from 20-21 of May 2026. We were on the ground, presenting some of our flagship work. Here's an overview of what happened:

Day 1: Permanent carbon removal

First Session

The Buyer's Club has a shape. Following the keynote opening, our Chief Policy Officer Alexander Mäkelä led the session on boosting private demand for CDR, presenting the blueprint for the EU Carbon Removal Buyers' Club alongside panellists from Stripe Climate & Frontier, Nordea, and the European Commission.

The session focused on a practical market-building question: how can Europe convert CRCF integrity, public support and growing corporate interest into bankable offtake for credible carbon removal projects?

The discussion built on our publication with Carbon Management Europe, mapping the design options, trade-offs and emerging directions for how a Buyers Club could work in practice. In the presentation, Alex set out the Buyers Club as a practical market-enabling framework, not just a buyer forum.

The model connects four pieces that need to work together:

1. CRCF sets the rules. Standards, certification, MRV, additionality and transparency setting the integrity foundation for the market.
2. Market tools make the system usable. A CRCF methodology and programme progress tracker, a Buyers Club portal, and evolving corporate guidance can help buyers navigate which methods, programmes, projects and use cases are ready for serious engagement.
3. Public instruments help de-risk early projects. The Innovation Fund, potential procurement tools, auctions, CCfDs, carbon farming instruments and national schemes can help improve bankability, especially where projects depend on infrastructure, permitting, storage or other enabling conditions.
4. Buyer coordination turns this into demand. The Buyers Club is designed to aggregate demand, support best-practice sharing, structure project intake, and move buyers from interest to diligence to offtake.

Alex also outlined the scope: one club, two tracks. One track would focus on permanent removals, starting with methods such as DACCS, BioCCS / BECCS and biochar, while expanding as additional methodologies mature. The second track would focus on carbon farming, including approaches such as agroforestry / soil carbon, afforestation and peatland restoration, with scope to expand over time.

The roadmap for the next two years for this enabling framework would see parallel action across CRCF build-out, Innovation Fund activity, an EU CRCF Facility design and roll-out, national support schemes and private-sector buyer coordination all need to advance in parallel. The near-term priority is to continue the process and encourage more buyer-led coordination, open intake, structured due diligence, all with the aim of first offtake commitments by the end of 2026.

See highlights of the presentation here

Takeaways from the day

The regulatory foundation for carbon removal is real. The CRCF regulation entered into force on 7 May, with methodologies for DACCS, Bio-CCS, and biochar now in place. Carbon farming methodologies are expected by end of year. The recognition process for certification schemes launched today, with a June webinar already drawing 400+ interested parties.

The pipeline is real but needs demand. Around 12 Innovation Fund projects are planning CDR credit sales, with operations expected from 2028. Projects showcased today included Cesap Sky Zero (450k tCO₂/year, Sweden), Holcim Olympus (1M tons capture, Greece), and Danube Carbon Storage (600k tons/year biogenic, Hungary). The first public CRCF-aligned transaction; ClimeFi coordinating Stockholm Exergi with Nasdaq and Adyen; showed it can already be done.

Financing remains the critical bottleneck. Most projects are still equity-financed. Revenue-based financing against offtakes and advance payment structures are emerging, but standardised contracts and insurance instruments remain limited. Delivery risk is the primary concern for lenders.

Member States are starting to move. Germany and Norway have both committed €60M to CDR funding and purchasing schemes respectively. Switzerland has pioneering CDR requirements written into law. The Nordic region alone has potential for 160M tons of removals by 2050.

Day 2: Carbon farming

Over the two days, a lot of ground was covered. It's great to see the progress made, but the work continues to make the Buyers Club fully operational as we advocate for carbon removals as part of European policy.

Here's what stood out to our team:

Carbon farming opportunity is real and large. The European pipeline could reach 420M tonnes CO₂ by 2040, with 20M tonnes immediately available when CRCF methodologies launch. Two-thirds of that is removals, one-third emissions reductions. The global market was valued at $300M in 2024; Europe has the regulatory foundation to become the most credible piece of it.

The supply side is further along than many assume. Yesterday we heard from developers already doing the hard work: one project has engaged 2,000 farmers across 500,000 hectares in four European countries, paid €16M to farmers, and is approaching 1M tonnes. Another has 100 verified peatland restoration pilots in Germany and 5,000 hectares under letters of intent. A forestry developer is working across 110,000 hectares with 1,500+ companies on nature strategy.

Market barriers remain significant. High unit economics, price volatility, a weakening regulatory environment in 2025, and the absence of long-term offtake agreements are all constraining bankability. The free rider problem; companies that benefit from others investing in carbon farming without contributing themselves; remains a structural challenge.

The carbon farming track of the Buyers' Club is taking shape. Deloitte presented design options specifically for the carbon farming track, reflecting the needs of carbon farming suppliers & buyers. This is distinct from the permanent removals track presented on Day 1; while there may be some overlap between the two, the carbon farming track has its own design considerations and remains under development. The direction being explored includes a voluntary demand coalition, open to all organisation types, with non-binding entry & buyer-led governance supported by the Commission. Services under consideration include demand aggregation, standardised contract templates, market intelligence, & access to a vetted project pipeline. Target operational launch is early 2027.

A complementary EU Facility follows from 2027. Public-private risk-sharing mechanisms under consideration include price subsidies, first-loss guarantees, purchase options, & pooled replacement guarantees.

Work is underway on corporate use cases but implementation takes time. Deloitte's work on CRCF unit use cases is expected to conclude by October, but implementation through bodies such as EFRAG will take longer. Importantly, the Commission is seeking active dialogue with the GHG Protocol, SBTi, and others to ensure alignment.

The week closed with Alex speaking at the Sirona Technologies drinks reception; reflecting on two days of discussion and what the launch of the EU Buyers' Club means for the months ahead.