The CRCF framework covers a defined set of activities related to carbon removals and carbon farming, with a particular focus on solutions that can deliver measurable, durable, and verifiable climate impact. These activities span both nature-based and technology-driven carbon removal approaches, reflecting the diversity of pathways through which carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere and stored over time in a non-atmospheric carbon sink.

Carbon farming is a bunch of nature-based activities that all rely on biological processes and are typically embedded in agricultural and forestry ecosystems. These approaches linking climate action directly to land use and ecosystem management primarily include carbon farming practices divided into three main groups of activities.

1. Organic soil amendment practices. They are typically innovative, typically crop production activities such as soil carbon sequestration, cover cropping, no-till or low-till techniques. They belong mainly to the regenerative agricultural technologies to be implemented to measurably increase the organic carbon stocks in the soil over time without taking out the land from intensive agricultural use.
2. Land use change. It is a process resulting in the underlying areas being removed from intensive agricultural use and reclassified based on ecological reasons. This includes restoring natural hydrology in degraded peatlands preventing peat oxidation and restoring wetlands that were previously drained due to intensive agriculture to their original state to halt soil carbon mineralization. Improved grassland management belongs here as a borderline area, which is a set of good practices aimed at improving root biomass and the carbon storage capacity of the soil with or without changing land use based on the original state and the host country’s local regulations. These changes also contribute significantly to biodiversity enhancement and desertification control.
3. Improved forestry. It covers a bunch of regenerative forestry approaches such as afforestation that refers to the planting of forests in areas where there were previously no forests, while reforestation refers to the restoration of forest cover in areas that were previously forested. Agroforestry also falls into this category, which involves planting trees, groups of trees, or small groves on agricultural plots or pastures to retain water and combat erosion. All of them accounted for carbon removals because they significantly contribute to the annual increase in biomass and soil carbon stocks relative to the baseline.

Besides carbon farming, the CRCF framework also encompasses technological carbon removal solutions such as Direct Air Capture with Carbon Capture and Storage, Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage or Biochar projects. They all include processes where carbon dioxide is captured and stored in geological formations or durable products, aiming to ensure long-term or near-permanent storage.

A central element of the CRCF is its focus on the durability of carbon storage. The framework introduces clear distinctions between different storage time horizons, recognizing that not all carbon removals provide the same level of long-term climate benefit. This distinction is critical in the context of net-zero strategies, where the role of more permanent carbon removals is becoming increasingly important.

With the publication of the Bioeconomy strategy, the EU plans to shift the provision and production of food, biofuels, energy, and related services from a system dominated by fossil fuels to one based on renewable, primarily biological resources, thereby involving everything from agriculture and fishing to biotechnology in the fight against the use of fossil fuels. The measures cover several areas, through which the EU supports the launch of the carbon market. On the one hand, the EU is launching an EU Buyers' Club for companies that opt for offsetting to kick-start the credit buyer market. On the other hand, it is also creating an EU Carbon Farming Database to provide methodological assistance to carbon market project developers in setting baselines and effective monitoring. Finally, as a core of the strategy, it paves the way for the spread of building materials in the construction industry that store biogenic carbon dioxide mainly from biomass in the product for the long term.

The CRCF framework places a strong emphasis on ensuring that certified activities deliver high-integrity climate outcomes. This is achieved through a set of clearly defined criteria that address how carbon removals are quantified, monitored, and maintained over time.

1. Additionality is key. One of the central principles is additionality, requiring that certified activities deliver carbon removals beyond what would have occurred under standard practices or existing regulatory requirements. This ensures that the climate impact is not only measurable, but also genuinely incremental.
2. MRV is required. The framework also introduces strict requirements for monitoring, reporting, and verification. Project outcomes must be tracked over time using consistent methodologies, allowing for transparent and comparable assessment of performance. This is complemented by independent verification processes delivered by a Validation & Verification Body accredited by the EU, which provide assurance that reported results accurately reflect the underlying activities.
3. Emission factors are critical. All emission factors must be spatially defined closest to the Land Management Unit; no global averages fit the methodology anymore. Full GHG footprint calculation is required, meaning biomass-only, CO₂-only emission factors are insufficient. Allocation is no longer a modelling choice; it has become a consistency requirement. Biogenic CO₂ emission factors are required to use; if the biogenic emission factor isn’t there, the emissions do not disappear, they are just simply missing from the calculation. Finally, all emission factors must meet measurement-grade evidence thresholds. If removals are reported, carbon stock changes must be empirically supported; underlying data must be periodically re-measured or recalibrated at least every 5 years, and representativeness across variability must be demonstrated.

Taken together, these elements define a more rigorous approach to carbon project quality. Rather than relying on broad claims, the CRCF establishes a framework in which climate impact must be demonstrable, traceable, and maintained over time.