Public procurement stands as a powerful, oft-underused lever in accelerating the development of durable carbon removal credits. When governments include explicit targets for net-zero and sustainable procurement practices, they create a predictable pipeline for projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere over multi-decade horizons. This demand certainty lowers perceived risk for project developers, enabling them to secure financing and scale up operations more rapidly than in markets driven by voluntary demand alone. To maximize impact, procurement policies should couple removal credit purchases with clear performance standards, verifiable metrics, and timelines that match the longevity requirements of removal technologies, such as permanent mineralization or long-lived biological sinks.
A robust framework for demand signals begins with transparent criteria for evaluating removal credits. Buyers should insist on independent verification, standardized baselines, and consistent accounting across procurement cycles. By publishing annual procurement plans, governments communicate their long-term intentions to the market, signaling that credits sourced today will likely be needed for years to come. In addition, linking procurement to credit quality—distinguishing between temporary reductions and durable removals—helps prevent greenwashing and builds trust with taxpayers and market participants. Crucially, policies must ensure that credits are retireable or otherwise accounted for within government ledgers to prevent double counting and maintain integrity.
Tie incentives to measurable permanence, verification, and public value outcomes.
Beyond policy signals, public entities can drive genuine market activity by designing incentive structures that reward early action on long-term removal projects. For example, front-loaded procurement contracts that offer higher payment rates in initial years but include escalator provisions as credit duration extends can encourage project developers to invest in technologies with strong permanence characteristics. Such incentives, when paired with strict performance milestones, reduce the risk premium faced by lenders, enabling more favorable financing terms. Crucially, these contracts should include clear clauses for monitoring, reporting, and independent verification to ensure that claimed removals correspond to real, verifiable outcomes.
To sustain momentum, procurement programs should diversify the portfolio of eligible removal approaches. Combining mineral carbonation, afforestation or reforestation with long-term monitoring, soil carbon sequestration, and innovative use of durable materials can spread risk and attract a broader pool of developers. This diversification also buffers government programs against technology-specific bottlenecks or regulatory shifts. By requiring a minimum proportion of credits from verifiable permanence-focused projects, agencies can maintain integrity while expanding the pipeline. Regular performance reviews and adaptability clauses allow procurement rules to evolve with scientific advances and market learning.
Promote collaboration, transparency, and shared standards across actors.
A practical path to durable demand is embedding permanence requirements into the core of procurement criteria. Buyers should specify that credits must be backed by projects with independently verified permanence assessments, such as monitoring plans that prove long-term storage capacity or robust risk mitigation strategies. Performance-based payments can be structured to reward sustained carbon removal over 20, 30, or even 50 years, with periodic audits to confirm ongoing effectiveness. In parallel, co-benefits—such as biodiversity enhancement or local air quality improvements—can be monetized within the procurement framework, providing additional motivation for agencies to prioritize genuinely permanent and verifiable credits.
Public procurement can also accelerate market maturation by offering technical and financial support to early-stage removal projects. Governments might provide grant-based pre-development funding, access to concessional debt, or guarantees that reduce financing costs for projects that demonstrate credible, long-duration removal potential. By lowering upfront barriers, these incentives increase the likelihood that projects reach a scale where cost declines and learning-by-doing lower overall system costs. Transparent reporting on how funds are deployed and the outcomes achieved reinforces accountability and encourages continued industry investment.
Align public incentives with learning, resilience, and equity goals.
Collaboration between public buyers, project developers, financiers, and independent verifiers is essential to create a resilient demand signal. Shared standards on baselines, measurement methodologies, and retirement tracking reduce fragmentation in the market and help align expectations across jurisdictions. When procurement platforms publish project pipelines, evaluation criteria, and performance results in an accessible, machine-readable format, it becomes easier for researchers, NGOs, and industry to monitor progress and propose targeted improvements. In addition, multi-stakeholder dialogues can surface common challenges—such as soil carbon fragility or leakage concerns—and develop consensus-based solutions that strengthen market credibility.
The role of transparency cannot be overstated. Governments should publish annual reports detailing the number of credits procured, the permanence credentialing status, and the realized sustainability co-benefits. This level of openness creates reputational incentives for participants to maintain high standards and fosters public trust. To maximize impact, procurement portals should support easy comparison across projects, display verification documents, and provide clear retirement records. When the public can scrutinize how money is spent and what outcomes are achieved, political and financial support for long-term removal strategies grows more sustainable.
Build a sustainable, scalable path from pilots to nationwide adoption.
Long-term demand signals must be designed with resilience in mind, anticipating market shifts and climate risks. Procurement contracts should include force majeure provisions and adaptive management plans that allow adjustments in response to scientific updates or changing regulatory environments. This fortifies the durability of credits and reduces the risk of stranded investments. Equally important is ensuring equity in access to procurement opportunities. Targeted outreach to underrepresented communities and small-to-medium-sized project developers can broaden the credit ecosystem and prevent concentration of benefits in a few large players.
In addition to resilience, governments can align procurement with capacity-building outcomes. By tying a portion of payments to local workforce development, community co-benefits, and local persistent monitoring capabilities, agencies stimulate job creation and knowledge transfer. These measures not only improve project performance but also build social license for long-running credits. When communities see tangible improvements alongside climate gains, procurement programs gain legitimacy and political durability, encouraging continued investment and adoption of stringent permanence criteria.
A thoughtful transition from pilots to large-scale adoption requires standardized project templates, scalable verification processes, and streamlined administrative procedures. Governments can establish a tiered eligibility system, where pilot projects with demonstrated permanence principles graduate into larger, state-supported programs. Centralized verification bodies, funded jointly by public budgets and industry fees, can maintain consistency while accelerating review timelines. As the credit market matures, performance-based pricing and long-term contracts become more commonplace, incentivizing ongoing innovation and helping to bring down overall costs. The goal is a dependable, repeatable pathway that aligns procurement signals with evolving scientific understanding.
Finally, embedding continuous learning into procurement governance ensures that demand signals remain robust over time. Agencies should commit to periodic policy reviews, incorporating new permanence metrics, lifecycle analyses, and leakage risk assessments. Feedback loops from project developers, lenders, and community stakeholders should inform updates to eligibility criteria and payment structures. By treating procurement as an adaptive instrument rather than a fixed rulebook, governments can sustain durable demand for high-integrity removal credits, supporting a climate strategy that scales equitably and effectively across sectors and generations.
