Euroclear buys carbon removals from three European projects as part of net zero plan

Euroclear, the Brussels-based financial market infrastructure group, has bought carbon removal credits from three projects across Europe and the UK. It expects to remove more than 3,700 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere in 2026.

The purchase is part of Euroclear’s strategy to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its value chain by 2050. The company says cutting its own emissions remains the priority. The removal credits are meant to address emissions it cannot yet eliminate. Euroclear will retire the credits as they are issued, so they cannot be resold or claimed by anyone else.

Carbon removal specialist CUR8 advised Euroclear on selecting the projects and will monitor them against quality and integrity criteria. The three projects mix nature-based and technological approaches, with different levels of durability:

• Ecobase, Project Spruce: reforests degraded and low-value farmland across Europe with native, mixed-species woodland. More than 220 landowners in 24 countries take part. They establish and manage the new forests and receive most of the project’s carbon revenue.
• Agreena: pays European farmers to adopt regenerative practices that build carbon in agricultural soils and improve soil health and resilience to drought. Most of the carbon revenue goes directly to participating farmers.
• O.C.O Technology: a UK company that treats industrial waste. It uses its accelerated carbonation process to lock CO2 permanently into a manufactured aggregate used in building blocks, ready-mixed concrete and road sub-bases. The stored carbon can stay locked away for more than 1,000 years, making this the most durable of the three.

Euroclear’s chief sustainability officer said the company wants lasting climate impact from removal projects that also support livelihoods and communities.

The volume is small compared with the largest corporate removal deals. Its significance is the buyer: European financial institutions are increasingly buying removal credits directly. By spreading the purchase across reforestation, soil carbon and mineralisation, Euroclear has adopted a risk-balanced approach. The approach recognises that nature-based removals are usually cheaper and offer wider social benefits, while engineered or mineral storage gives much greater permanence.

All three pathways fall within the scope of the EU’s Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming certification framework, which is now being implemented. European buyers are watching how that framework will treat different removal types. The framework separates permanent removals from temporary storage in soils and forests, and that distinction is likely to shape how companies can report such purchases under future EU climate disclosure rules.