Knowledge Hub

CDR.fyi 2023 Mid-Year Progress Report

August 2023
Robert Hoglund

CDR.fyi's half year report provides a fascinating glimpse into the CDR market, showing massive growth in purchasing - now at 4.1 million tonnes for the year with a forecast of 7 million tonnes to the end of the year (but just 34,000 tonnes already delivered). This succint report analyses the progress made and what's needed - 40-50% compound annual growth rate over the next 27 years to get to the gigatonne scale needed.

Rethinkings

Criteria for High-Quality Carbon Dioxide Removal

2023
Microsoft, Carbon Direct

After three years of experience buying carbon removals, Microsoft has updated its quality criteria. Its aim is provide a clear framework for suppliers and help to advance a common definition of high-quality CDR that will support the market as it matures.

Rethinkings

Carbon Removal Playbook

May 2023
Boulder County

Boulder County has collaborated with Carbon Direct to create a playbook for developing local carbon dioxide removal strategies. The resulting “Best Practices for Local Carbon Removal and Resilience Strategies” and a companion report, “Carbon Removal Strategies for Local Communities” are both available to download now.

Rethinkings

State of CDR Report

February 2023
The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal Report

High-level global assessment informing on the state of CDR and the gap we need to close. Its aim is to build a community, bridge data gaps and support the scale up of CDR responsibly and equitably.

Rethinkings

VCM Map

February 2023
Puro Earth

"One market, 22 verticals, and 311 companies." This is the 2023 Market Map of the “New” Voluntary Carbon Market from Puro.earth. Click to download your copy.

Rethinkings

European Commission certification of carbon removals

November 2022
European Commission

The European Commission's proposal for certifying durable and short-term carbon removals, to be sandbox-tested and adapted.

Rethinkings

Shopify’s carbon removals buyers guide

December 2022
Shopify

This carbon removals buyer’s guide from Shopify is a must read; it includes how to persuade people in your organisation to want to buy, what criteria to use when buying, what to look for and where, how to build a portfolio, and how to buy/retire removals. It also provides sample documents such as terms and conditions and spreadsheets for tracking the suppliers in your portfolio, etc.

Rethinkings

One stop jobs market for carbon removal projects

August 2022
Carbon Removal Jobs

Looking for a career in Carbon Removal or talented people to work on your CDR project? Check out this dedicated jobs board to find or add the perfect post. This community-focused tool aims to catalyse talent into the industry. Its developers are also looking for feedback to improve the website; lend a hand via the link in their ‘about’ section.

Rethinkings

Tracking carbon removals

August 2022
cdr.fyi

cdr.fyi is the data visualisation website we’ve been waiting for. It tracks purchases, deliveries, and verifications of 100+ year permanent carbon removal via clear, readable metrics and leaderboards. Information at your fingertips and a listing to arouse some healthy competition. Submit your own data or just check out who is doing what to make carbon removal a reality.

Rethinkings

A playbook for DAC Hubs

April 2022
Carbon180

The US Department of Energy is providing $3.5 billion in funding through the direct air capture hubs programme. This playbook lays out recommendations to make gigaton-scale hubs that create robust benefits for the environment and local communities - building a foundation for the future of carbon removals.

Rethinkings

List of known CDR purchases

2022
Robert Hoglund

Robert Hoglund has done a great service by producing this google sheet with an up-to-the-minute list of carbon removal transactions. This is the bottom-up view of what suppliers and buyers are doing in reality.

Rethinkings

What the IPCC says about carbon removals

April 2022
Eli Mitchell-Larson, Carbon Gap

If you want to understand what the IPCC says about the role of carbon removals in climate mitigation read Eli Mitchell-Larson's brilliant twitter thread.

Rethinkings

Mind the Gap

March 2022
Energy Transitions Commission

Influential multi-stakeholder report from the Energy Transitions Commission showing that between 70-225 billion tonnes of cumulative carbon removals by 2050 to keep 1.5 degrees alive. The report explores the potential of a portfolio of solutions.

Rethinkings

DAC on track in 180 days

December 2021
Carbon 180

How the US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is investing billions in direct air capture at scale.

Rethinkings

Proposed EU policy on removals

December 2021
European Commission

Proposals for accelerating engineered removals and upscaling carbon farming. Plan to draft regulatory framework by end of 2022.

Rethinkings

Microsoft’s million-tonne CO2 removal purchase – lessons for net zero

September 2021
Nature

Microsoft’s mission to remove its historical emissions required a complete rethink of how corporate buyers could engage in supporting removals rather than relying on the carbon offsets market. Along with Stripe and Shopify, these tech companies not only hold the lessons for other companies but are actively passing them on.

Rethinkings

CDR Primer

2021
Jenn Wilcox

Compiled by the brilliant Jenn Wilcox (now making carbon removals policy at the US Department of Energy), this CDR Primer explains the science behind carbon removals – from why it’s needed, to how it works.

Rethinkings

Carbon Removal Policy Tracker

November 2021
Carbon180

Carbon180's easy to use guide to navigating US legislation on carbon removal.

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New EU Climate law

May 2021
Climateworks Foundation

New EU Climate law delivers innovative policy framework to advance carbon removal and avoid moral hazard.

Rethinkings

Reaching climate objectives: the role of carbon dioxide removals

May 2021
Energy Transitions Commission

This consultation paper is an attempt to assess the appropriate and feasible role of carbon removals in 1.5DC pathways by quantifying ‘remaining’ emissions from hard-to-abate sectors. It makes an interesting distinction between emissions from energy use/manufacturing and from agriculture/land-use – effectively ringfencing natural removals to the latter. ETC estimates that, cumulatively, around 200 Gt of carbon dioxide would need to be removed by 2050.

Rethinkings

Carbon Removal Newsroom

2021
Nori

A 30-minute weekly podcast on what is happening in carbon removals technologies, policy, deployment and markets. Hosted by Radhika Moolgavkar of the Nori market platform and guests. US based but looks more broadly. Great way to keep up and start understanding the implications.

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The Carbon Copy

2021
Carbon180

Biweekly newsletter from Carbon 180 providing an insightful perspective on progress in specific areas of carbon removals.

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Carbon Removal Academy

AirMiners

A collection of ‘reading’ materials for the AirMiners’ Boot Up online crash course covering different approaches to carbon removal – soil, forests, biomass, direct air capture, mineralisation, oceans and carbon tech. The list is divided by level of knowledge and depth of interest, and contains a fabulous collection of articles, video interviews, podcasts, blogs and scientific papers.

Rethinkings

CDR Database

2021
CarbonPlan

CarbonPlan has a slew of useful reports and tools. This one is a downloadable database of carbon removal companies that Microsoft and Stripe are supporting. The list can be filtered by approach, volume and permanence and is ranked based on these criteria and additionality.

Rethinkings

Removing forward: Centering Equity and Justice in a Carbon-removing Future

2021
Carbon180

Ground-breaking report explores five guiding principles for just carbon removal, with a focus that is local (who benefits), global between north and south, and intergenerational.

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A Progressive Platform for Carbon Removal, Summary for Policymakers

July 2021
Data for Progress

Rethinkings

Phase II Report

July 2021
Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets

Latest working report from the initiative started by Mark Carney to develop a reliable and well-governed voluntary carbon market. The Taskforce has struggled to gain consensus on the role of carbon offsets in tackling climate change.

Rethinkings

What is good net zero?

2021
Science Based Targets Initiative

SBTI is working hard to develop a science-based methodology for including carbon removals as part of ‘good’ net zero strategies. Its Net Zero Standard (including criteria, guidance and tools) will be published ahead of COP26. This blog piece describes the issues and the process it is following, with links to the background reports and advisors involved. A key space to watch.

Rethinkings

Carbon Removal Source Materials

2021
Stripe

Stripe’s github contains all its template review forms and purchase agreements (including funding terms for purchase and R&D, technical milestones, renewal criteria etc), plus links to videos. Radical transparency is baked into its agreements to accelerate pick up.

Rethinkings

Zero, then Negative: The Congressional Blueprint for Scaling Carbon Removal

2021
Carbon180

Rethinkings

Global Warming of 1.5°C

Dec 2018
IPCC

This report kickstarted the debate around carbon removals by showing it was a necessary part of any 1.5 pathway. Reaching net zero emissions by 2050 means removing any remaining emissions, from sectors such as aviation or cement, and remaining negative thereafter. The IPCC scenarios require between 5 billion and 10 billion tonnes of carbon removal a year by 2050 – and cumulatively up to 1,000 billion tonnes of carbon removals by 2100.

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How to Kick Start the Carbon Removal Market: Shopify’s Playbook

May 2021
Shopify

Shopify’s approach to selecting and supporting impactful suppliers of carbon removals, including its research templates, performance criteria, lessons from year one and thoughts on the future.

Rethinkings

Confronting mitigation deterrence in low-carbon scenarios, Environmental Research Letters

Jun 2021
Neil Grant et al

This paper from the Grantham Institute and Imperial College London addresses the moral hazard issue – that focusing on carbon removals can dilute incentives to reduce emissions, but failure to deploy removals requires even steeper reduction curves. The paper finds evidence that mitigation deterrence can occur, and recommends formally separating out targets and strategies for reductions and removals.

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The Physical Science Basis, AR6

Aug 2021
IPCC

The first of the sixth round of IPCC Assessment Reports focuses on the realities of climate change but it makes that carbon removals are urgently needed – and that planting trees alone won’t do it. It estimates the remaining carbon budget for a 1.5DC scenario at 400-500 billion tonnes of CO2 from the start of 2020, with human activities currently emitting around 40 billion tonnes of CO2 each year. Within this decade, in other words, annual carbon removals equal to or greater than annual emissions are needed to stabilise or ideally reverse aspects of climate change.

Rethinkings

Carbon Removal Corporate Action Tracker

2021
Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy, American University

Periodically updated tracker of corporate carbon removal pledges across all sectors from the Institute for Carbon Removal Law & Policy at the American University in Washington DC.

Rethinkings

Carbon removal, Lessons from an early corporate purchase

Microsoft

Microsoft set the transparency bar high with this report on how it developed and implemented its carbon removal strategy, following proposals from over 200 companies. It highlights the gaps around permanency and leakage in carbon accounting and calls for significantly higher removal standards, the limitations Includes sample contract language and list of prerequisites.

Rethinkings

The why, what and how of carbon removals