The voluntary carbon market remains fragmented and difficult to access. Demand is spread across buyers, many of whom lack the strategy, confidence, operational resources or scale to procure high-integrity credits effectively. This can lead to reactive, short-term purchasing that carries a commercial premium and does not always align with longer-term objectives, while smaller buyers may struggle to access the market at all. The consequences of this demand situation impact the supply side: fragmented, short-term demand makes it harder for high-integrity projects to secure the forward commitments needed to support financing and scale. Xynteo’s carbon credit aggregation and procurement engine, X-CAPE, helps address that gap.
Limited forward-looking demand is holding back high-integrity project development
For all the attention on supply integrity, methodology reform, and ratings, the constraint most often holding projects back is simpler: a shortage of long-term, committed buyers. Long-dated offtake is what allows developers to raise the capital required to bring projects through to issuance, and it is a key missing ingredient that keeps the highest-integrity projects stuck at the financing stage. Carbon Direct estimates that over 80% of the 2030 high-durability carbon removal supply pipeline is at risk due to insufficient offtake and financing agreements.[1] The World Economic Forum has drawn a direct parallel to power purchase agreements in renewables, where long-term contracts established the price and demand certainty that allowed the sector to scale.[2]
This creates a case for earlier engagement. As demand for high-quality credits grows, competition for the most credible projects is likely to increase, meaning corporates that engage early will be better positioned to secure access and favourable terms.
Why corporates usually struggle to engage
Even when the strategic case is clear, the operational reality is hard. Building a high-integrity offtake portfolio requires a capability set that tends to sit well outside what many in-house sustainability teams are resourced to deliver. Smaller buyers face an additional challenge: their volumes can be too low to justify the effort or access high-integrity credits on attractive terms, with limited opportunities to buy collectively. For those who do move, procurement spans multiple stakeholders and significant effort, last-minute broker purchases can carry fees of up to 15% of total volume, and the fear of greenwashing backlash can make sitting out feel like the safer option.
The result is hesitation. Corporates with credible net-zero plans end up delaying carbon credit procurement because the path from ambition to first transaction feels out of reach.
Demand aggregation, and the engine behind it
At Xynteo, aggregation is the centrepiece of how we solve this. Our Carbon Credit Aggregation and Procurement Engine, X-CAPE, reaches fragmented buyer demand through an anchor client’s value chain and pools it into cohorts, matched by the type of credit each buyer actually needs. Grouped this way, buyers can create a stronger demand signal, access high-integrity credits together and secure better terms, with the risk and operational burden shared rather than carried individually. This is how aggregation can create forward-looking demand at a scale that supports high-integrity projects through to financial close, and offtake agreements that would be difficult for any single buyer to secure alone.
This aggregation model builds on Xynteo’s broader carbon markets advisory work, helping buyers get procurement-ready by translating their climate strategy into clear requirements for the role, type, quality, volume and timing of carbon credits. We then bring our partners to support procurement and execution, enabling clients to move from a one-project pilot to a multi-project portfolio, with supply diligence and MRV providing ongoing integrity assurance.
Getting ready to act, together
As demand for high-integrity credits grows, early engagement can put corporates in a stronger position to access credible supply and secure favourable terms. This starts with getting procurement-ready: building the strategy, requirements and internal alignment needed to engage the market with confidence. But acting early does not mean acting alone. Demand aggregation enables buyers to move together, lowering the cost and complexity of entering the market while creating stronger demand signals for developers and financiers.
The lesson from our work to date is straightforward. Start small, prove the model on one project, and let the engine grow alongside the ambition.
[1] 2026 State of the Voluntary Carbon Market: Closing the CDR demand gap. https://www.carbon-direct.com/voluntary-carbon-market/2026
[2] WEF. (2025, April). The new renewable revolution: Why carbon dioxide removal will transform the carbon market. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2025/04/carbon-dioxide-removal-carbon-credits/
Luiz Guilherme Pretti
Manager & Head of Carbon Markets
Andrea Trevisan
Consultant & Carbon Markets Expert
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