deCarbonized #22: Scaling VCM supply integrity; DAC barriers to scale
Solid World DAO partners with Emstream Carbon Market place to boost forward sale of carbon credits; Crypto's potential to drive planetary regeneration is discussed in Forbes
💡 Spotlight story
Direct Air Capture industry snapshot highlights barriers to scale
DAC leader Climeworks have released their first 'Industry Snapshot', in which they explore current innovation funding and policy needed to scale DAC development at the pace required.
Promising progress is being made, with multiple technologies reaching demonstration scale. This has been assisted by supportive innovation funding environments; the US for example, has allocated $3.5 billion to four DAC hubs while the UK has dedicated £100m to advancing technology development.
Reaching ambitious IEA targets of 980 million tonnes of removal by 2050 however, require a massive acceleration in the rate of technology commercialization. Four key focus areas are identified:
- Continued investments in research and development to test new approaches and support technological breakthroughs.
- Improved regulatory clarity to ensure that DAC facilities come online quickly, with strong safeguards and protections in place.
- Robust first markets created through government procurement, which can set clear standards for projects.
- Dedicated support for community education and engagement, as well as funding to drive local job creation and community wellbeing.
Checkout the full Industry Snapshot here
📢 Top news picks
- Canada's Delta CleanTech and Muskowekwan First Nation partner on blockchain powered carbon capture project
- Solid World DAO partners with Emstream Carbon Market place to boost forward sale of carbon credits
- Tens of millions of California Carbon Offsets face elevated risk of wildfire destruction
- Crypto's potential to drive planetary regeneration is discussed in Forbes
💵 If you’re a VC or interested in more investment news, check out the web3 for climate newsletter
⛓ Market action
Weekly carbon stats
Toucan Protocol is building carbon market infrastructure to finance the world's best climate solutions. These are our on-chain stats from 12- 19.06.22:
Carbon prices as of 20.06.22, with 7 day change:
BCT - $2.00 (-2.9%) | NCT - $2.93 (+15.3%)
NGEO - $9.23 (-11%) | GEO - $4.51 (-2.1%) | EU-ETS - $82.12 (-0.3%)
🦜 Want to learn more about Toucan? Check out Season 2 of our Twitter spaces!
🌟 New feature series!
Scaling VCM Integrity: Quality of Supply
At IETA's European Climate Summit, integrity was repeatedly identified that the largest barrier to scaling voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) in line with growing demand.
Over the next few weeks we will be delving in to a three part series, where we explore current market trends and emerging initiatives seeking to drive future integrity, covering:
- 🌱 Quality of supply
- 🛒 Quality of demand
- 🌍 Quality of market operation
This week we begin with Quality of supply.
The integrity of a carbon credit consists of both essential quality criteria and more subjective characteristics. Quality generally refers to guaranteeing that one carbon credit = one tonne of carbon reduced or removed from the atmosphere. Achieving this depends on the presence of four key characteristics: Accurate baseline, Additionality, Permanence and Leakage.
Other more subjective aspects include the presence of different sustainability co-benefits (such as improved livelihoods or biodiversity protection) and if the credit is focused on reduction or removal.
To guarantee the quality and integrity of carbon credits, developers should clearly and ongoingly demonstrate that key project milestones are being met. This is achieved by transparently recording and sharing measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) data, a process considered to be highly resource intense.
Reducing the MRV burden on project developers is therefore also key in scaling high integrity credit supply. This can be addressed via greater upfront financing and digital MRV solutions, as well as the tokenization of carbon credits to increase transparency and price signalling.
Check out the full piece for more on key aspects of quality and initiatives seeking to simplify access to high quality credits.
💼 Jobs board
- Product Co-Founder, Carbon Wallet - US remote
- Carbon Offset Sourcing Manager, ClimatePartner - Munich, Germany
- Policy & Impact Lead, Toucan Protocol - Global remote
- Project Director, Forest Positive Partnership, Conservation International - Seattle US
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