In a newly published paper, Carbon Gap and Carbon Management Europe examine how a structured mechanism for aggregating demand could help unlock private investment capital for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) in Europe.
The publication comes ahead of the European Commission’s first Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Days scheduled to take place in Brussels and online on May 20 and 21, 2026.
On the first day of the event, a dedicated session will delve into the concept of the EU Buyers’ Club. This initiative, announced by the Union as a way to stimulate the market for CRCF credits, represents a coordinated group of companies committing to purchase verified carbon removals.
As both removals and emissions reductions will be key for reaching net zero in Europe, the continent is already home to a growing pipeline of CDR projects, but most cannot yet attract the private financing needed to move from development to construction.
The paper highlights that the main constraint is not a lack of capital, but rather the absence of credible purchasing commitments from buyers. Without this kind of support, project developers cannot demonstrate the revenue certainty that investors and lenders require before committing funds.
Drawing from a February 2026 workshop held with corporate buyers, financial institutions, and European Commission observers, the paper examines how an EU CDR Buyers’ Club could help address this gap.
The paper maps out possible CDR Buyer’s Club designs across four dimensions: the regulatory framework it should apply, the technologies and geographies it should cover, how procurement should be structured, and how ambition levels and buyer commitments should be defined.
As stated in the publication, the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming Regulation (CRCF), whose first methodologies entered into force this month, emerges as the most credible regulatory foundation.
Relevant: EU Adopts The World’s First Voluntary Standard For Permanent CDR
The paper points out, “A CRCF-aligned approach with flexibility to incorporate future methodologies in the pipeline, a focus on near-commercial projects within EU and EEA jurisdictions, and a corporate-led structure operating at market formation scale represent the most workable directions from stakeholder deliberations.”
It also clearly notes that a CDR Buyers’ Club would not replace existing market actors, and its role would be to function as a coordination platform—providing common standards, institutional credibility, and aggregated demand signals while working alongside the intermediaries, project developers, and financial institutions already active in the European CDR ecosystem.
The complete paper can be accessed here, and both Carbon Gap and Carbon Management Europe are attending the CRCF Days to discuss these findings and contribute to the debate on scaling high-integrity CDR in Europe.
Read more: The Negative Emissions Platform Outlines Ways To Unlock Short-Term CDR Demand In The EU
