The voluntary carbon market is moving away from a reliance on simple registry validation. Today, buyers of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits conduct their own deep diligence to manage reputational and financial risks. Project developers must now satisfy multiple layers of scrutiny regarding baseline assumptions, monitoring systems, and land use to secure offtake agreements for technologies like DAC and BECCS.
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Basically saying that having a stamp from a registry is not enough anymore. Buyers are doing their own homework now because they are tired of getting burned by low quality credits.
This shift happens when there is no standardized regulatory floor. When the government doesn't define quality, the biggest buyers create their own private standards. It is inefficient but necessary until we get better reporting rules.
The piece mentions DAC and BECCS but ignores the energy reality. If the diligence doesn't include a hard look at where the power is coming from and the actual grid interconnection timeline, the offtake agreement is just a piece of paper.
True. Most of these projects claim they will use renewables, but they rarely explain if they have the actual PPA or if they are just hoping the grid is clean enough by 2030.
