A tender for avoidance credits is mostly about quality checks and price. A tender for carbon removals adds two harder questions: will the carbon stay stored long enough for the claim you need to make, and will the tonnes actually be delivered in the years you need them?
Those questions change how you write the requirements, which suppliers you invite and what kind of contract you sign. Most durable removal capacity is sold years before it is delivered: CDR.fyi counts 50.5 million tonnes contracted against 1.7 million tonnes delivered. Buying removals is therefore often about securing future supply.
This guide covers carbon removal procurement from purpose to contract. For the general tender process, see our carbon credit tender guide.
The short answer. Start from what the removals are for, because that decides durability, volume and delivery years. Use spot for small or short-lived volumes, an offtake for durable removals you need in specific future years, and write requirements on durability, reversal risk, verification, delivery schedule and remedies. Evaluate minimums first, then quality and price per delivery year, and contract with a recognised template.
Step 1: Define what the removals are for
The purpose sets every parameter of the tender:
SBTi V2, Category A. From 2035 you need removals equal to 1% of ongoing emissions, rising every year, with a growing long-lived share. Our article on SBTi carbon removal requirements shows the volumes per year. Durability and delivery years are fixed by the standard.
Neutralisation at net zero. Long-lived residual emissions need long-lived removals; the rest can use short-lived removals.
Voluntary portfolio or contribution claims. You have more freedom on type and timing, but the claim you want to make still has to match what you buy.
Write down three numbers before you invite anyone: volume per year, the share that must be long-lived, and the first and last delivery year.
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Step 2: Choose spot, forward or offtake
Spot | Forward | Offtake | |
|---|---|---|---|
What you buy | Credits that exist today | Credits for delivery at a set future date | Multi-year deliveries from one project, often before it is fully built |
Availability for durable removals | Limited | Moderate | Most of the market |
Price certainty | Today’s price only | Fixed for the delivery | Fixed or indexed for years |
Delivery risk | None | Moderate | Higher, managed through contract terms |
Fits best | Small volumes, short-lived removals, testing suppliers | Known need one to three years ahead | Long-lived removals for SBTi or net-zero years |
Many buyers combine them: spot for this year’s short-lived volume, an offtake for the long-lived share from 2030 or 2035. Our guide to spot, forward and offtake pricing compares the economics, and our offtake buyer’s guide covers the structure.
Step 3: Write removal-specific requirements
On top of the standard integrity questions, ask every supplier to answer these in writing:
Storage and durability. Where is the carbon stored and for how long, with what evidence? If you need SBTi long-lived removals, ask how the project demonstrates storage for centuries to millennia.
Reversal risk. How are reversals monitored and compensated (buffer pool, replacement, insurance), for how long, and who is responsible?
Measurement and verification. Which standard and methodology, which registry, who verifies, and how much of the quantification is measured rather than modelled?
Delivery schedule. Tonnes per year, from which year, and what counts as delivery (issued and transferred, or retired in your name). Our reading of SBTi V2 is that a removal counts in the year it is delivered and verified, so the schedule should match the years you need to cover.
Remedies. What happens if the project delivers fewer tonnes, delivers late or credits are invalidated: replacement, refund, proportional share of output, termination rights?
Supplier and project finance. Who develops the project, how is it financed, what is built today, and what has the developer delivered before?
Article 6 status. Will the host country authorise the removals, and will a corresponding adjustment apply? For neutralisation under SBTi V2 you must report this.
Our list of 19 questions to ask every carbon credit supplier covers the general integrity questions; the carbon offtake due diligence checklist adds the questions for multi-year deals.
Step 4: Find and invite suppliers
For durable removals, the supplier field is smaller than for avoidance credits, and many projects are still being built. Common routes:
Project developers directly. Best for offtakes, where you need to assess the project and the developer.
Aggregators and specialised providers. They hold or arrange a portfolio across several projects and methods, which spreads delivery risk.
Pooled buyer programmes. Some buyers procure together in larger joint tenders; that gives access to scale but less control over terms.
Public market data helps you see who is delivering. CDR.fyi’s buyer’s guide is a neutral starting point for the durable removal market. Invite a shortlist of three to six suppliers that can plausibly meet your durability and delivery requirements.
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Step 5: Run the tender and evaluate
Give suppliers a clear timeline: a deadline for questions, a date for your answers, the submission deadline and the award date. For offtakes, allow enough time for suppliers to prepare delivery schedules and financial information.
Evaluate in two passes:
Minimum requirements. Public registry, retirement in your name, durability evidence that matches your purpose, a delivery schedule that covers your years, and a remedy clause. An offer that misses a minimum is out.
Scoring. Score quality (integrity, durability evidence, verification, safeguards, supplier track record) and price. Compare price as an all-in price per tonne for each delivery year, including indexation, so a cheaper first year does not hide a more expensive tail.
For reference, durable removals traded at weighted averages of around USD 136 per tonne for biochar, USD 220 for BECCS, USD 352 for enhanced rock weathering and USD 516 for direct air capture on CDR.fyi in October 2026. Our overview of carbon removal credit prices explains the ranges.
Tip from Bernard de Wit, Co-founder of Regreener: “In removal tenders, the delivery schedule and the remedy clause tell you more than the price. Two offers at the same price per tonne are very different if one delivers from 2027 with a replacement obligation and the other from 2031 with a refund. Score the contract terms as seriously as the project.”
Step 6: Contract with a recognised template
Start from a template rather than the supplier’s paper. Two widely used public templates:
Frontier’s offtake agreement template (published December 2025) for multi-year removal offtakes, covering delivery per contract year, pricing, verification, shortfall remedies, termination and durability monitoring. Frontier itself stresses that it is a starting point to be adapted with legal advice.
IETA’s Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) for spot and forward purchases, available from IETA’s trading documents.
Whatever template you use, the contract should cover at least delivery and retirement, price and payment, what happens on non-delivery or invalidation, no double counting, Article 6 status where relevant, and how both parties may refer to the purchase publicly. Our article on key contract terms in carbon offtake agreements goes clause by clause.
A note for public buyers
Public bodies follow procurement law. For supplies and services, the EU thresholds valid from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027 are EUR 140,000 for central government and EUR 216,000 for other public bodies; above them, a European tender procedure is likely to apply. Below them, your own procurement policy decides. Our guide to public procurement of carbon credits sets out the requirements to include.
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Regreener’s free RFP builder gives you a starting draft for spot, forward or offtake purchases: a Word RFP with quality requirements based on public frameworks, a supplier response form that includes the removal-specific questions on reversal risk and storage durability, and an Excel sheet to score removal offers side by side. You add your own terms, process and legal review.
If you prefer to have the market scan and evaluation done for you, Regreener structures removal offtake agreements with projects that have passed our 100+ datapoint quality framework. Talk to a Climate Strategist.
