Only ~3% of contracted durable CDR delivered — deal structure now matters as much as price

CDR.fyi just published Types of CDR Purchases: A New Section in the CDR.fyi Buyer's Guide.

CDR.fyi has published a new section of its Buyer’s Guide covering the four main structures used to buy durable carbon removal: spot, forward, pre-purchase and offtake. The authors, Shrishti Sinha and Alexander Rink, anchor the piece in CDR.fyi’s own data showing roughly 50.5 million tonnes contracted to date against about 1.7 million tonnes delivered as of October 19, 2026. Each structure is explained with a real deal, including SAP and Climeworks for spot, Klima Foundation and Exomad Green for forward, Shopify and Mati Carbon for pre-purchase, and Microsoft and North Star Carbon Solutions for offtake. The section also covers options and capacity reservations, procurement approaches such as RFPs and aggregated buying, direct versus intermediated purchasing, a decision table and an FAQ on bankability and ex-ante versus ex-post credits.

Our take (Useful): The core argument holds up: with a 3% delivery rate, who carries shortfall risk is the real question, and the guide is honest that pre-purchases are closer to venture financing than procurement. What is thin is pricing - the piece asserts spot carries a premium but offers no numbers by structure. Termination and credit-quality terms, which decide offtake bankability, are rarely disclosed, so the examples lean on public deal summaries.

-> Read the full piece at CDR.fyi

Captain Drawdown is flagging this. The reporting is CDR.fyi’s. Go read them directly, not a rewrite from us.

Source: CDR.fyi Blog