Carbon removal credits

Nature-based and engineered removals

Nature-based removals grow or restore carbon stocks: afforestation and reforestation, mangrove and grassland restoration, and soil carbon. They are affordable and bring biodiversity and community benefits, but the carbon can be lost to fire, disease or land-use change, so permanence has to be managed.

Engineered removals lock carbon away for far longer: biochar buried in soils, enhanced rock weathering, carbonated building materials and direct air capture with geological storage. They cost several times more per tonne because the technology is young and capacity is small.

Why removals matter for net zero

Reaching net zero means cutting emissions first and then neutralising what remains with removals, not avoidance. Corporate frameworks such as the Science Based Targets initiative expect residual emissions at the net-zero date to be balanced with permanent removals. Many buyers start with a blend of removal and avoidance credits and raise the removal share over time.

Evidence to check

The questions that matter most for removals are about storage, not just capture.

• Durability: how long the carbon is expected to stay stored, and what happens if it is released.
• Reversal protection: for land-based projects, the size of the buffer pool and the monitoring period after crediting ends.
• Measurement: how the stored carbon is quantified, and whether it is measured on the ground or modelled.
• Additionality: whether the removal would have happened anyway, for example trees planted for timber regardless of the credit.
• Vintage and issuance: that the tonnes you buy have been verified and issued, not only forecast.

What affects the price

Storage durability is the main driver. Afforestation credits on this marketplace are typically in the same range as other nature-based credits, while biochar and other engineered removals cost from around £150 per tonne. Prices exclude VAT and include retirement, certificate and payment fees. Applicable VAT is added at checkout. Sign in to see live prices.

How to read the CRISP rating

CRISP, the Carbon Ratings Insight Platform, reviews each project’s design document, verification and monitoring reports, scores five criteria out of 5 with a written justification for each, and averages them into the overall rating you see on every project card. More than 1,800 projects are rated and the ratings are free to read.

• Additionality: would the reductions have happened anyway? CRISP looks for regulatory surplus, financial need for the credit revenue, activities that are not common practice, and a credible baseline.
• Permanence: how long the benefit lasts and how reversal risk is managed, through monitoring, buffer pools or insurance and long-term project commitments.
• Quantification: whether the reductions are measured with robust methods, a clear baseline, systematic monitoring, independent verification and transparent reporting.
• Leakage: whether emissions simply shift outside the project boundary, and whether that is monitored and deducted from the credits.
• ICVCM CCP status: 1 if the methodology has not been submitted or failed assessment, 3 if submitted and pending, 5 if approved under the Core Carbon Principles.