The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has announced a significant expansion in the carbon removal sector with the approval of six new engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methodologies. These approvals follow earlier authorizations this year and mark a crucial development for a segment of the market that currently accounts for less than one percent of issued voluntary credits. However, expectations for rapid growth are high, driven by increasing forward sales and the potential for the UK and EU to integrate such credits into their compliance markets within five years.

The newly eligible pathways for CCP-labelled credits include Gold Standard’s Accelerated Carbonation of Concrete Aggregate and five frameworks from Isometric: BiomassBiomass is a complex biological organic or non-organic solid product derived from living or recently living organism and available naturally. Various types of wastes such as animal manure, waste paper, sludge and many industrial wastes are also treated as biomass because like natural biomass these More Geological Storage, Bio-oil Geological Storage, Subsurface Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage, Biogenic Carbon Capture and Storage, and Direct Air Capture.

While these frameworks have only issued about 30,000 credits to date, project registration suggests a steep growth curve. Twenty-four projects under Isometric’s methodologies could potentially issue over 3.2 million credits annually, and 15 projects using Gold Standard’s methodology are projected to generate more than 9,000 credits each year.

In addition to engineered removals, the ICVCM also approved two key land-based approaches: the CAR Mexico Forest Protocol v3 (Improved Forest Management) and VM0047 v1.1 (Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation). The CAR methodology, which covers over 8.1 million issued credits, received an upgrade to full approval after aligning its leakage accounting with the latest research. The VM0047 v1.1 framework, which permits remote sensing for biomass assessment, has over 60 projects in development with a potential annual issuance of nearly 10 million credits.