Insights from Our CEO: Integrity, innovation and the future of high-quality carbon markets
A strategic outlook from Ueli Steiner
As carbon markets move toward greater integrity and regulatory alignment, the role of robust and reliable standards is becoming increasingly critical. In this outlook, Ueli Steiner, CEO of Carbon Standards International, shares key insights on integrity, innovation and the future of carbon markets.
Endorsement
Our goal is to provide our customers with the best standards and operational procedures. Our aim must be to ensure that standards are reliable and that companies can build a long-term business model based on our standards for different climate services. To ensure this with external endorsements, our Global C-Sink Standards are endorsed by ICROA.
Now in 2026 the market will be more unified under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Our clear next step is full alignment with the ICVCM and CORSIA as well.
Methodologies
Carbon Standards International aims to enable reliable climate services and is continuously developing new standards. Innovation is very important, but not at any price. We have therefore paused our standard for enhanced rock weathering (Global Rock C-Sink) for the time being, as the increase in carbon in the first 100 years is not sufficiently scientifically proven for us.
While biochar is our most important business area, we will soon have news to share here as well, in addition to Global Biochar C-Sink and Artisan C-Sink. We can look forward to this important innovation and the public review process in the second quarter of 2026.
We have recently expanded our standard family into the construction industry with Global Construction C-Sink. The construction sector has massive potential for reliable temporary carbon storage in buildings and constructions. Our Carbon Standards Construction Tool allows C-Sink managers to manage objects relatively easily. We are very proud to have Openly as our first C-Sink Manager and we could issue Carbon Sinks (C-Sinks) for the first sustainable buildings.
Biochar
As I explained in my published article “Carbon footprint as a mark of quality for agricultural products”, the agriculture sector will probably be the most affected industrial sector by the advancing global climate change. This also includes various regions in the Global South where smallholder farmers have already abandoned their farms and moved to cities. This is a development that we must stop at all costs.
The application of biochar in soil helps to increase climate resilience and to prepare the farms for the challenges of climate change. This was one of the main reasons for the development of our Global Artisan C-Sink Standard. If families continue to earn a living locally and can send their children to school, then another important social factor comes into play.
Artisan C-Sink enables to process local biomass that would otherwise produce enormous amounts of greenhouse gases. This makes an extremely sustainable contribution to climate protection. All these co benefits: improved soil health, better crop yields, social benefits and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions make the Artisan C-Sink Standard strong. The market is developing well.
Pricing
We are currently positioned as the most cost-effective standard in the market. We will only adjust prices slightly in the coming months, in combination with more services for producers, traders and buyers in the Global C-Sink registry. We want to continue offering our producers the best value for money. We have also received positive feedback on this.
Outlook on the VCM
The impact of climate change on the entire economy will be crucial. The transition to a sustainable economy and climate-resilient agriculture takes time. Companies must adapt to the new circumstances and make their services and products more sustainable. We will therefore remain in a transition phase for some years, but with a positive outlook.
In my view, the carbon markets will grow in technologies that take the carbon cycle into account. We should not remove carbon from the atmosphere only to pump it into underground storage facilities. The captured carbon should primarily be used to replace fossil carbon, thereby remaining part of the carbon cycle.
With this approach, the market will develop very well because we are all working together to implement viable solutions. We expect 2026 to be a year of significant scaling for high-integrity and sustainable projects. We therefore expect growth in our Global C-Sink Registry as well.
Projects
We are starting 2026 with more than 130 successful CDR-Projects and close to 600’000 t CO2e issued in the Global C-Sink registry. The data for 2025 shows a clear upward trend: credit generation has increased significantly compared to previous years as our existing projects moved from implementation to full production.
Retirements have been equally strong, which validates our strategy. Some buyers also see C-sinks as an investment, which we can understand very well. Personally, I believe that prices will rise in the coming years.
Registry Alignment
Our Global C-Sink Registry is technically ready to flag credits for Corresponding Adjustments (CAs), which is the mechanism needed for Article 6.2 transfers between countries. We will have to remain flexible in this regard in the coming years, although we have seen that our innovations in recent years have also been widely adopted by the authorities.
Our goal is to give our project developers, producers and traders the flexibility to sell to whichever market — compliance or voluntary — offers them the best price and value.
Innovation
We can confirm that we will continue to develop and integrate our Global C-Sink Registry further into the carbon market ecosystem. This will greatly benefit carbon markets, as our world is becoming increasingly digital. As with the development of our standards, close cooperation with the Ithaka Institute for climate strategies is very important for us here as well.
You can also read the full interview on this topic with Quantum Commodity Intelligence here.