Carbon Direct & Microsoft Release 2025 Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal

Key takeaways

• Fifth edition introduces criteria for marine carbon removal pathways and enhanced technical guidance across all CDR pathways.

• Updated criteria incorporates lessons from Microsoft's 22-million-tonne procurement program and reflects evolving regulatory frameworks, carbon markets, and climate science.

• Technical glossaries and refined measurement protocols strengthen accessibility and scientific rigor for project developers and buyers.

NEW YORK, NY – July 10, 2025 – Carbon Direct and Microsoft today announced the release of the 2025 edition of the Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal. This fifth edition, which builds on multiple years of application, market feedback, and advances in climate science, continues to shape the global conversation on high-quality carbon removal and the evolution in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) quality benchmarks. The inaugural criteria were introduced in 2021 and are updated annually, serving as the industry's leading resource for project developers seeking to deliver high-integrity carbon removal, and for buyers evaluating the quality of their CDR portfolios.

Read the 2025 Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal

Climate science and recent policy developments underscore the urgency for rapid deployment and scale-up of CDR technologies, with estimates indicating the global community must remove 100-1,000 billion metric tonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) by 2100 to limit warming to 1.5°C, requiring annual removals of 5-10 GtCO2 by midcentury. Current deployment of high-quality CDR remains only a fraction of what is needed, highlighting a significant gap. In response, major U.S. legislation has delivered unprecedented funding and incentives for CDR, the EU has established a rigorous certification framework to ensure quality and transparency, dozens of countries now include CDR in their climate strategies, and COP29’s Article 6.4 guidance has clarified international rules for trading CDR between nations, collectively laying the groundwork for scaling CDR to meet global climate targets.

"Science and policy advances continue to demonstrate the critical need for equitable, science-based CDR standards that not only guide CDR, but also inform broader sustainability procurement strategies, including environmental attribute certificates for industrial decarbonization, and corporate insetting programs,” said Jonathan Goldberg, CEO, Carbon Direct. “Quality remains the biggest challenge in rapidly scaling and advancing high-impact carbon dioxide removal. Adhering to evidence-based CDR criteria is imperative; these updated 2025 benchmarks provide the rigorous, science-based framework needed to help the industry maintain quality, assisting buyers in making informed decisions as we scale toward the gigatonne removals needed to achieve climate goals."

The 2025 edition establishes rigorous standards across nine distinct CDR pathways, ranging from nature-based solutions, including afforestation and soil carbon sequestration, to engineered approaches, such as direct air capture, and the newly addressed abiotic marine methods. Each pathway includes updated guidance reflecting the latest scientific research, operational experience, and regulatory developments.

• Breakthrough guidance for marine carbon removal: The 2025 criteria mark are among the first comprehensive standards established for abiotic marine CDR, specifically Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) and Direct Ocean Removal (DOR). These ocean-based approaches represent potentially massive-scale carbon removal opportunities, but require specialized monitoring protocols for both carbon accounting and marine ecosystem protection. The new guidance addresses unique challenges, including ocean circulation modeling, biogeochemical monitoring, and environmental risk management in marine environments.

• Enhanced technical precision across all pathways: Every CDR method received updated technical requirements, with new glossaries defining specialized terminology and clarifying complex concepts. The enhanced guidance reflects operational learnings from Microsoft's expanded procurement program, which has contracted over 22 million tonnes of CDR, and evaluated more than 400 project applications, since 2023.

• Strengthened measurement and verification standards: The 2025 edition places increased emphasis on direct measurement over modeling where feasible, while acknowledging the continued role of validated models in comprehensive carbon accounting. Updated measurement protocols incorporate advances in remote sensing, automated monitoring systems, and analytical techniques that have emerged since the previous edition.

Microsoft's procurement experience directly informs the updated guidance. The company's CDR program has grown from 1.3 million tonnes in 2021 to over 22 million tonnes contracted in fiscal year 2024, with applications increasing 90% since the program's inaugural year. This market engagement provides real-world validation of quality standards and implementation challenges.

"These updated criteria reflect our accumulated experience evaluating hundreds of CDR projects across multiple pathways and geographies," said Brian Marrs, Senior Director of Energy Markets at Microsoft. "The 2025 criteria reflect the latest science and operational insights, providing a foundation for continuous improvement to help ensure that as the carbon removal market grows, it does so with integrity and transparency.”

Carbon Direct’s framework outlines six science-based principles that apply across engineered, hybrid, and nature-based removal approaches: 1) Social harms, benefits, and environmental justice; 2) Environmental harms and benefits; 3) Additionality and baselines; 4) Measurement, monitoring, reporting, and verification (MMRV); 5) Durability; and 6) Leakage. These principles provide a consistent foundation for procurement evaluation and project benchmarking.

Carbon Direct and Microsoft plan to continue their collaboration on future editions, with potential expansion into additional emerging pathways, including wetland restoration and carbon dioxide utilization technologies. The organizations remain committed to advancing CDR market development through transparent, science-based quality standards.

To read the 2025 Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal, visit: https://carbon-direct.com/criteria/2025-edition

To read the blog from Carbon Direct, visit: https://www.carbon-direct.com/insights/what-makes-carbon-removal-high-quality-inside-the-2025-criteria

About Carbon Direct
Carbon Direct is the leader in science-based carbon management, helping emerging and established climate leaders like Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, JetBlue, and The Russell Family Foundation drive scalable and just impact through deep decarbonization strategies and carbon dioxide removal. With Carbon Direct’s scientific approach, organizations can confidently set targets and measure their emissions, implement reductions across their operations and supply chain, and build high-quality carbon dioxide removal into their climate plans to accelerate impact. To learn more visit: www.carbon-direct.com.