As the European Union advances the implementation of the Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) Regulation, attention is increasingly shifting from certification rules and supply towards demand and financing: who will finance carbon farming activities, and under what conditions?

This policy brief, developed within the Horizon Europe project CAFAMORE, examines the proposed EU Buyers’ Club for carbon farming. The brief sets out how the Club should be designed to support early demand for CRCF carbon farming certificates while ensuring environmental integrity and that it benefits farmers.

The key recommendations include:

• Define the Buyers’ Club as a learning and transition mechanism, not as a long-term solution for financing the agricultural transition. The Club can support early CRCF implementation and act as a practical stepping stone towards compliance policies.
• Build a strategic portfolio of different CRCF activities and projects, rather than buying only the cheapest certificates available. Funding should prioritise additional, high-impact activities, maximising learning outcomes.  
• Don’t treat all CRCF certificates as interchangeable. Carbon farming activities differ in permanence, reversal risk, monitoring complexity and co-benefits.  
• Clarify what claims buyers can make, including for Scope 3 reporting and carbon credits, as well as for co-funded projects, while avoiding a focus on offsetting use cases.  
• Use public support to unlock additional private finance, rather than replace it, while ensuring that private buyers cannot claim mitigation outcomes that they only marginally financed.  
• Avoid market structures that weaken farmers’ bargaining power or concentrate influence among a small number of intermediaries, MRV providers or project developers.