Relae (formerly known as Carbon Direct), in partnership with Microsoft, has published the sixth edition of the Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), adding a framework for delivery risk for the first time.
The publication provides updated quality benchmarks designed to help developers, investors, and buyers build and procure high-quality CDR.
Relae and Microsoft have been releasing criteria for high-quality removals since 2021, refreshing each new edition to reflect the latest science, voluntary carbon market changes, and lessons on diligence from hundreds of real-world projects.
The 2026 Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal establishes both a quality floor and an aspirational standard to serve as guidance for developers and inform due diligence by buyers and technical experts.
For the first time, the criteria also come with a framework for delivery risk assessment, evaluating the likelihood of a project generating credits at the quantity and on the timeline agreed to with buyers.
Relae and Microsoft’s framework for delivery risk evaluation
To evaluate the delivery risk, the publication uses the TECOP framework, which considers a range of aspects, including technical, economic, commercial, organizational, and political factors.
The technical segment assesses the feasibility of the project design, implementation, and long-term management, while the economic one looks into the project’s financing structure, financial modeling assumptions, and expenditure profile.
From a commercial perspective, the framework examines the extent to which a project’s purchase agreements, supply arrangements, and key contractual relationships are secured or well-advanced, and in terms of organizational design, it checks the developer’s capacity and capability to plan, execute, and manage a project of the appropriate size and complexity.
Relevant: Carbon Direct And Microsoft Release 2025 Criteria For High-Quality CDR
Lastly, the delivery risk framework looks at the project’s political environment, taking into consideration governance, policies, and potential changes in regulatory environments, and the local communities’ perceptions of and willingness to participate in projects.
The 2026 high-quality CDR criteria updates the quality expectations across six essential principles applicable to all CDR pathways: social harms, benefits, and environmental justice; environmental harms and benefits; additionality and baselines; measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification; durability; and leakage, accompanied by pathway-specific criteria across nine pathways.
Additionally, the publication has been refreshed to include direct counterparties, greater rigor for enhanced rock weathering (ERW), and dynamic baselines for afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects.
The complete Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal can be found here.
Read more: Carbon Direct Publishes Quality Criteria For Voluntary Low-Carbon Fuels
