“How many carbon credits do I need?” has a one-line answer and a planning answer. The one-line answer: one carbon credit per tonne of CO2e you address. The planning answer is where budgets go wrong, because the number changes every year and so does the type of credit you need.
Most companies we talk to start from last year’s footprint and multiply by a price. That gives a number for 2026. It says nothing about 2030, when your emissions should be lower, or about 2035, when SBTi starts asking larger companies for removals.
The short answer. The carbon credits your company needs in year X are the emissions you expect in year X, times the share you choose to cover, split over avoidance credits, nature-based removals and durable removals. From 2035, SBTi V2 adds a floor of removals for Category A companies, and at your net-zero year all residual emissions have to be neutralised with removals.
Start from the emissions you will still have, year by year
Your credit volume follows your emissions path, not your current inventory. If you plan to cut scope 1 and 2 emissions by 60% by 2032, buying credits for today’s footprint every year means paying for tonnes you no longer emit.
A simple path is enough to plan with: take your base-year emissions, set your net-zero year, and assume emissions fall in a straight line to a residual level. SBTi V2 requires long-term targets that bring emissions down to residual levels by 2050 at the latest, and where the standard puts a number on it, it uses residual emissions of approximately 10% or less. That makes 10% of base-year emissions a sensible planning default. Your reduction plan will not be a straight line in practice, but a straight line is a defensible planning assumption until you have a better one.
No inventory yet? Measure scope 1 and 2 first; they are usually the most precise numbers you have, and scope 3 can start from spend-based estimates and improve later.
Then the volume for each year is simple:
credits needed in year X = expected emissions in scope in year X × the share you cover
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What volume does your plan add up to?
Enter your emissions and net-zero year and get a year-by-year credit volume, split by credit type.
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Decide which emissions you cover
This choice moves the number more than anything else. For most services and light-manufacturing companies, scope 3 is several times larger than scope 1 and 2 combined. Covering scope 1 and 2 only, scope 1 and 2 plus business travel, or all scopes can change your annual volume several times over.
There is no rule that says which scopes you must cover voluntarily before 2035. The right choice depends on what you want to be able to say, what you can fund, and how credible your reduction plan is next to it. A company that covers a small, well-defined scope with high-quality credits and reports it transparently is in a stronger position than one that covers everything with the cheapest credits on the market.
Keep the claim in mind while you size the volume. Covering 100% of scope 1 and 2 does not entitle you to call your company or products carbon neutral towards consumers in the EU. Since 27 September 2026, EmpCo bans offset-based neutrality claims; what you can say is that you finance verified climate projects. We explain the wording in our guide to carbon neutral claims under EmpCo.
The SBTi V2 floor: removals from 2035
SBTi published version 2.0 of its Corporate Net-Zero Standard in June 2026, open for use from early 2027. Two requirements in chapter 6 set a minimum volume for Category A companies:
From 2035 (C45): support eligible carbon removals equal to at least 1% of ongoing scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, including a defined and increasing share of long-lived removals.
At the net-zero year (C46): reduce emissions to zero or residual levels and neutralise all residual emissions with eligible carbon removals.
Note that the 1% applies to all three scopes, even if your voluntary coverage is scope 1 and 2 only. And it does not stay at 1%: the standard has the share rise linearly from 1% in 2035 to 100% of ongoing emissions by your net-zero year, and no later than 2050 (C45.1). The long-lived part follows the same pattern, from at least 10% of the covered emissions from long-lived gases such as CO2 in 2035 to 100% at the net-zero year (C45.4). SBTi says it will review these post-2035 criteria in the next major revision of the standard, so the numbers can still move.
You are Category A if your net turnover is at least EUR 450 million or you have at least 1,000 employees. In a high-income country such as the Netherlands, you are also Category A with scope 1 and 2 emissions of at least 10,000 tCO2e, or when you meet two of three size criteria: a balance sheet of at least EUR 25 million, turnover of at least EUR 50 million, at least 250 employees. Those three are the size criteria the EU Accounting Directive uses to define a large company, which is why many mid-sized European companies land in Category A through that last test. Our article on the SBTi Net-Zero Standard V2 covers the rest of the standard, and our guide to SBTi Category A or B walks through the test step by step.
One more rule shapes the plan: carbon credits never count towards your SBTi reduction targets. The standard is explicit that supported mitigation outcomes “shall not be counted toward target scope 1, scope 2, or scope 3 implementation and shall not be netted from the GHG inventory” (C43.1). Credits come on top of reductions, never instead of them.
Split the volume by credit type
The number of tonnes is half the plan. The other half is which tonnes. Three categories cover most portfolios:
Avoidance and reduction credits, such as clean cookstoves, landfill gas or avoided deforestation. The lowest cost per tonne, but no removal value under SBTi.
Nature-based removals, such as reforestation and agroforestry. Mid-range cost, with permanence risks managed through buffer pools and monitoring.
Durable removals, such as enhanced rock weathering, direct air capture with geological storage and biochar. The highest cost per tonne. Long-lived removals in SBTi’s sense, carbon stored “for centuries to millennia”, come from this group.
Price differences between these categories are large. MSCI put the 12-month average for reduction credits at around USD 3.6 per tonne and the minimum average for long-lived removals at around USD 130 per tonne in July 2026. That means the mix decides your budget at least as much as the volume does. Our avoidance vs removal guide goes into the trade-offs.
A plan that holds up shifts the mix over time: mostly avoidance and nature-based credits in the early years, a growing share of removals towards 2035, and durable removals for the residual emissions at the net-zero year.
Tip from Bernard de Wit, Co-founder of Regreener: “Plan the removal years first and work backwards. Durable removal supply is thin and most of it is sold years ahead through offtakes. A company that starts buying removals in 2034 will pay whatever is left. A company that secures part of its 2035 volume now has a price and a supplier.”
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Run the numbers for your own company
The planner works out your SBTi V2 category and shows your credit volume and budget range per year.
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A worked example, year by year
To show how the pieces fit, here is an illustrative Dutch company: turnover EUR 120 million, 400 employees, balance sheet EUR 60 million. Emissions: 1,000 t scope 1, 500 t scope 2 and 2,000 t scope 3. Net-zero year 2050, residual emissions 10% of the base year. It voluntarily covers scope 1 and 2, with a balanced mix of credit types.
Turnover, balance sheet and headcount are all above the size thresholds, so this company is Category A under SBTi V2.
Year | Credits needed | Of which removals required by SBTi V2 | What drives the number |
|---|---|---|---|
2027 | 1,444 t | none | Scope 1 and 2 on the reduction path |
2035 | 994 t | 23 t | Scope 1 and 2, with 1% of all ongoing emissions as removals inside that volume |
2040 | 713 t | 565 t | The removal share climbs every year (C45.1) |
2044 | 687 t | 687 t, of which 440 t long-lived | The SBTi minimum is now larger than the voluntary scope 1 and 2 coverage |
2050 | 350 t | 350 t, all long-lived | Residual emissions of all scopes, neutralised |
Three things stand out. The total volume falls by three quarters between 2027 and 2050, but the cost per tonne rises sharply because the mix moves to removals. The removal requirement does not peak at the net-zero year: it peaks around 2044, at almost twice the 2050 volume, because the share rises faster than emissions fall. And from 2042 the SBTi minimum is larger than what the company chose to cover voluntarily, including scope 3 emissions it never planned to address.
The figures come from Regreener’s planner with its standard assumptions (straight-line reduction from 2026, balanced mix, all emissions treated as long-lived gases). Your own path will differ, and the budget depends on the prices you use.
Common mistakes in sizing the volume
Budgeting from today’s footprint. It overstates the volume in later years and hides the cost increase from removals. Plan per year.
Counting credits towards the reduction target. SBTi does not allow it, and auditors under CSRD will ask how credits and reductions are reported. Keep them in separate lines.
Treating removals as a 2035 problem. The requirement starts in 2035, the procurement does not. Durable removal projects often sell their output years ahead, which is why companies with a clear future need look at an offtake agreement for part of the volume. An offtake fixes the price and the supply; spot buying keeps flexibility at the risk of paying more when demand peaks.
Plan your own volume
You can do the calculation above in a spreadsheet. Regreener’s free planner does it for you: enter your emissions, net-zero year and coverage choice, and you get your SBTi category and a year-by-year plan for your carbon credit volume, split by credit type, with a budget range and a spot versus offtake comparison. To turn the volume into a budget for next year, see how to set a carbon credit budget for 2027.
The volume is the easy part to change. The quality of the credits behind it is what auditors, customers and journalists will look at: whether each tonne is additional, whether it is stored long enough for the claim you make, and whether it is retired in your name in a public registry. That is why every project in Regreener’s portfolio goes through our 100+ datapoint quality framework before we offer it to the more than 200 European companies we work with.
If you want a second opinion on your plan or the credits to fill it, talk to a Climate Strategist.
