ICVCM Sets Out Role of Carbon Removals Within Core Carbon Principles Framework

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market has published a detailed guide explaining how carbon removal projects fit within its Core Carbon Principles framework, ahead of wider assessments of nature-based and technology-based removal methodologies. The ICVCM is currently assessing forestry removal categories including Jurisdictional REDD+, Improved Forest Management, and Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation.

Carbon removals encompass a range of approaches from nature-based methods such as reforestation and wetland management to technology-based processes including Direct Air Capture and Storage (DACS), Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). The CCP framework applies to all types of carbon credit — reduction and removal — and requires that credits from removal projects be additional, permanent, robustly quantified, and independently verified. The ICVCM is also assessing biochar and soil carbon removal methodologies and has invited applications for technology-based Direct Air Capture and CCS categories.

Demand for carbon removals is expected to grow substantially. The IPCC estimates that up to 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide removal per year will be needed by 2050 across the least-cost pathways to the 1.5-degree Paris goal. The 2023 UNEP Emissions Gap Report corroborates this finding, concluding that all pathways consistent with the long-term Paris temperature goal require significant increases in both conventional and novel carbon dioxide removal. Despite this demand, a lack of consistent quality standards for nature-based removal projects has damaged market confidence and suppressed investment.

The EU Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement in February 2024 on a voluntary Certification Framework for Carbon Removals. The framework covers only projects located within the EU or storing carbon in neighbouring countries applying equivalent geological storage standards. The ICVCM expressed concern that restricting carbon credit use to EU-based removals would limit the role of international carbon markets in delivering global climate targets and deprive non-EU buyers of access to high-integrity removal credits from outside the bloc. The ICVCM stated it will continue assessing emerging standards and new categories into 2025 and beyond as the removal market matures.

Key figure — 10 billion tonnes per year — annual carbon dioxide removal required by 2050 under IPCC least-cost 1.5-degree pathways