On May 28, Carbon Direct released Sustainable Agricultural Biomass Sourcing for CDR: A Buyer's Guide — one of the first globally applicable frameworks for sourcing agricultural residues as feedstock for carbon dioxide removal (CDR) projects. Developed in collaboration with world-class scientists, industry stakeholders, and a group of leading buyer signatories including Microsoft and Stripe, this guide fills a critical market gap by equipping buyers and project developers with concrete guidelines for high quality project diligence reviews and integration into offtake agreements, even as formal certification frameworks continue to evolve.

Biomass-based CDR pathways are growing rapidly and made up more than 95% of high-durability CDR contracted in 2025. As buyers scale up to multi-million-tonne commitments, the question of where biomass comes from has become increasingly consequential. Agricultural residues like corn stover, wheat straw, and rice husks are attractive biomass feedstocks as by-products of existing food systems — but they often already carry economic, social, and ecological value for the communities they come from. Diverting agricultural residues without clear safeguards introduces real risk for developers and buyers.

The Buyer's Guide addresses those risks and is designed to be applicable across diverse geographies, recognizing variation in governance capacity, corruption risk, land tenure systems, data availability, and monitoring infrastructure.

"Agricultural residues exist at the intersection of food systems, land tenure, livelihoods, and carbon accounting, so poor sourcing doesn't only undermine carbon credits, it can cause real ecological and community harm," said Bodie Cabiyo, director of interdisciplinary science at Carbon Direct. "This guide gives developers the confidence that responsible sourcing decisions made today will hold up over time and gives buyers clear lines to draw in their contracts."

"Rigorous science and clear standards are the foundation of a trustworthy carbon removal market, and this guide delivers exactly that. By setting a high bar for sustainable agricultural residue sourcing, we are supporting infrastructure for CDR growth that translates into material climate benefit," said Phillip Goodman, director of carbon removal portfolio, Microsoft.

"Getting biomass sourcing right is table stakes for scaling CDR credibly. The science and the market will keep evolving, but this guide gives buyers and developers a strong starting point, which is what the market needs right now," said Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at Stripe.

The guide is organized around four core principles for responsible sourcing:

Traceability: Biomass must be traceable back to its origin, with three chain-of-custody options matched to supply-chain complexity to ensure volumes are reconciled along the way.
Community and worker protection: Biomass must come from sources with low risk of negative impacts on local communities, workers, vulnerable groups, and Indigenous Peoples.
Soil and environmental protection: Biomass must be sourced and managed in ways that minimize negative impacts on soil, including soil health, quality, and carbon stocks, and do not threaten protected areas.
Market integrity: Biomass must come from sources that do not distort markets for agriculture or forestry products.

The guide is designed for application across diverse geographies and is intended as a living resource, and Carbon Direct is committed to refining future editions as science and market conditions evolve. It builds directly on the forest biomass sourcing guidance published in 2024 and 2025, and on five editions of the High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal guidelines published by Microsoft and Carbon Direct.

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Carbon Direct releases sustainable agricultural biomass sourcing guide for CO2 removal, in collaboration with Microsoft and Stripe

Carbon Direct