• Carbon Direct released global criteria to help voluntary buyers assess low carbon fuel procurement across social, environmental, carbon accounting, and additionality risks.
• The guidance responds to a fragmented market where standards, definitions, and quality claims vary across regions, certification schemes, and regulations.
• The criteria give corporates and investors a due diligence tool as demand rises for fuels that can reduce emissions in hard-to-abate sectors.

Carbon Direct Moves to Clarify a Crowded Fuel Market

Carbon Direct has released new criteria aimed at helping companies buy low carbon fuels with stronger confidence in their climate and sustainability claims.

The Criteria for High-Quality Low Carbon Fuels give voluntary market buyers a consolidated framework for assessing fuel procurement. The guidance covers social and environmental integrity, carbon accounting, additionality, feedstock sourcing, and leakage.

The release comes as corporate demand grows for low carbon fuels across aviation, shipping, logistics, and industrial operations. Yet the market remains difficult to navigate. Buyers face a mix of certification schemes, regulatory systems, regional definitions, and competing quality claims.

For C-suite leaders, the issue is no longer whether low carbon fuels can support decarbonization plans. The harder question is what a purchase actually covers, and whether it can withstand investor, regulator, and stakeholder scrutiny.

“The voluntary low carbon fuels market is complex, crowded, and moving fast. The Criteria give buyers something no single existing certification provides: a unified, easily accessible, comprehensive set of quality principles that can be used to assess the sustainability of their procurement,” said Rohan Raman, Senior Hybrid Decarbonization Engineer, Carbon Direct. “The choices made by early voluntary buyers will shape whether the low carbon fuels market develops the credibility and rigor needed to deliver real climate impact at scale.”

Six Principles for High-Quality Procurement

Carbon Direct said existing certifications still provide value. However, no single framework gives voluntary buyers a holistic way to compare them.

The new criteria are designed to fill that gap. They set out six core principles for high-quality low carbon fuel production and procurement.

First, producers should avoid social harms and environmental justice violations. That includes monitoring risks, respecting Free, Prior, and Informed Consent where Indigenous Peoples are present, complying with international labor standards, and paying a regional living wage.

Second, producers should prevent environmental harm. Carbon Direct calls for screening-level risk assessments, clear monitoring plans, remediation thresholds, and regular communication with local communities about risks and mitigation steps.

Third, buyers should demand comprehensive and conservative carbon accounting. Producers need to disclose both attributional and consequential impacts. They also need clear co-product emissions allocation and a credible fossil fuel baseline based on defensible market analysis.

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Fourth, producers should prove additionality. In practice, this means showing that voluntary market support enables fuel volumes or carbon intensity reductions that would not happen otherwise. Carbon Direct said companies should account for all public support and policy-driven revenue streams when making that case.

Fifth, feedstocks must be sourced sustainably and transparently. The criteria call for end-to-end chain-of-custody documentation traceable to the point of generation. Agricultural feedstocks should include field-level records. Sourcing should protect Indigenous peoples, workers, and local communities. It should also avoid protected areas and regional carbon stocks.

Finally, producers and buyers must account for leakage. This includes land use change, feedstock displacement, and disruption in existing bio-based product markets across domestic and international supply chains.

Why It Matters for Corporate Climate Strategy

Low carbon fuels can play a major role in sectors where direct electrification remains difficult. However, weak procurement can expose companies to reputational, financial, and climate risks.

For boards and executives, the Carbon Direct criteria offer a more disciplined way to evaluate claims before signing supply contracts. That matters as companies face rising pressure to show progress against net-zero targets while avoiding low-integrity offsets or unclear fuel claims.

The framework also has implications for investors. Fuel producers that can show strong feedstock controls, conservative emissions accounting, and clear additionality may gain an advantage as buyers demand more proof. Meanwhile, suppliers with opaque supply chains could face tougher questions.

A Living Resource as Science Evolves

Carbon Direct said the criteria are intended as a living resource. The firm plans to refine future editions as science, market conditions, and procurement practices evolve.

The guidance builds on five editions of Carbon Direct’s High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal Criteria, co-developed with Microsoft. It also draws from the firm’s work on sustainable forest biomass sourcing for carbon dioxide removal, published in 2024 and 2025, and sustainable agricultural biomass sourcing for CDR, published in 2026.

The broader message is clear. Voluntary low carbon fuel markets are moving from early adoption toward greater scrutiny. As buyers scale commitments, quality will define whether these fuels deliver credible emissions cuts or create new governance and environmental risks.

For global corporates, the criteria offer a practical roadmap. For the market, they raise the bar for credibility at a time when low carbon fuel demand is becoming central to hard-to-abate sector transition plans.

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