⭐️ Supercritical highlight ⭐️
We were honoured to be mentioned amongst such high-calibre names by Business Insider as one of the most promising climate tech start-ups of 2023!
🍃 Carbon removal
What is happening in the world of carbon removal?
🎙 Calling for tech-neutrality in the EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework
Here’s the good news - The European Parliament’s Environment Committee is proposing a Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) which aims to scale up carbon removal activities and fight greenwashing. A recent draft was just released.
Here’s the bad news - The current version limits the scope of certified EU CDR to methods with geologic storage - an important piece of the CDR puzzle but not the only viable approach for permanent/durable CDR. The EU would miss out on key pathways, especially in the geochemical and ocean CDR.
CDR leaders joined forces to call for technological neutrality for carbon removal solutions. CDR leaders across 17 organisations representing the carbon removal ecosystem sent a letter to the European Parliament to urge EU legislators to ensure that the CRCF is tech-neutral. Unfortunately, the call to action was not taken into account.
So what does this mean? The chance of amendments is low. Thankfully, the European legislative process involved two other stakeholders - the European Council and the European Commission - both of which have indicated strong stances on tech-neutrality.
🤝 Carbon offsetting is correlated with – and not an impediment to – direct decarbonisation
A recent report by Ecosystem Marketplace revealed companies engaged in the VCM are 1.8x more likely to outperform their peers in climate action. The report looks specifically at the climate behaviour of companies purchasing voluntary carbon credits for their own use compared with companies that are not. These companies were also found to be 3x more comprehensive in their scope 3 reporting.
We love hearing good news stories like this 👏
🔗 🚗 Mini links: Carbon removal
🔮 BeZero have published an industry-first ex-ante rating, rating a project yet to issue any credits - an Improved Forest Management project in South East Asia. They believe ex-ante ratings to be crucial to helping scale the VCM
🪵 Drax, Stockholm Exergie, and EcoEngineers have released their BECCS (Bioenergy Capture and Storage) methodology
⭐️ The Gold Standard has become the first major standard to submit program level information to the ICVCM, applying for assessment against their Core Carbon Principles. We love the transparency of sharing this from the Gold Standard and keen to see the outcome of the assessment!
🌎 Climate and Net Zero
What is happening in the world of climate and net zero?
📚 Supercritical’s Reporting Series KO!
If there is one thing that governments and regulatory bodies all have in common, it’s their love of acronyms. From TCFD to EUCSDDD to WTF and everything in between! there is a lot of complexity to carbon reporting with an alphabet soup of standards, reporting requirements etc…
Let us introduce you to our policy expert, Juliette Briey, to help un-muddy these waters! Juliette will be running through the different reporting types over the coming editions and helping to break this all down simply to see what is relevant to you.
First things first, some clarification. These acronyms are not all the same thing.
Next edition we will be starting with mandatory reporting requirements and the highlighted regulation is …..🥁🥁🥁….. SECR!
⛈ Extreme weather events are on the rise, yet what does this cost?
A recent report released in Nature has revealed the hidden costs associated with extreme weather events. The study is the first to calculate a global figure for the increased costs directly attributable to human-caused global heating. Over the past two decades, extreme weather events have cost a shocking average of US$143 billion per year, sadly 63% of these costs are attributed to human lives lost. The researchers said their methods could be used to calculate how much funding was needed for a loss and damage fund established at the UN’s climate summit in 2022.
📉 Climate win at low cost? Look to methane!
Additional targeted actions to tackle methane emissions from fossil fuel production and use – such as by eliminating routine venting and flaring and repairing leaks – are essential to limit warming to 1.5 °C and reduce the risk of crossing irreversible climate tipping points, according to a recent report by the IEA.
The new report finds that rapid cuts in methane emissions from fossil fuels could avoid up to 0.1 °C in global temperature rise by mid-century – greater than the emissions impact of immediately taking all cars and trucks in the world off the road.
🔗 🚗 Mini links: Climate
🌳 The WRI has released an analysis concluding Amazon forests managed by Indigenous Peoples remove 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere each year (equivalent to the U.K.’s annual fossil fuel emissions) compared to forests outside the Amazon’s Indigenous lands are so deforested and degraded that they’re collectively a carbon source.
🗺 The Carbon Brief has released a map looking at the impacts of 61 carbon projects around the world, on local communities, land use and food production!
💰 Venture capital and private equity investment in climate tech have declined in 2023, yet continued to outperform the broader market, which continues to be impacted by economic and geopolitical turmoil, according to a new report by PwC.
🇺🇸 California's Governor signed climate disclosure legislation, requiring large companies with business in California to disclose their emissions and climate-related risks.
🤑 Commercial
New partnerships, fundraises and exciting initiatives going on in carbon removal!
🤝 Kita (a carbon insurance specialist) and puro.earth (carbon standard) have formed a partnership to offer biochar insurance exclusively to projects certified under the Puro Standard.
📑 Isometric launch standard 1.0.0, setting out the “world’s most stringent set of rules for removing carbon, raising the bar for scientific rigour, transparency, incentive alignment and collaboration and addressing the problems plaguing the traditional carbon offset market.”
🌎 Carbon removal is touching down in London! The 1975 became the first carbon removed gig at the London O2 and the London Marathon will be using a “climate levy” of £26 on all international participants to remove 280 tonnes at next years event
🔦 Carbon removal method spotlight
💧Bio-oil💧
Bio-oil has some similarities with biochar production. They both take waste or spare biomass and convert it to a highly stable form in a high-temperature environment through a pyrolysis process. The difference with bio-oil is that the result is a liquid oil rather than a char, and instead of being applied to soils, it is pumped underground for geological storage, where it’s highly likely going to stay permanently.
This newsletter is carefully crafted by Fi Watters and Tom Previte
Fi is a Climate Consultant at Supercritical with a MSc in Climate Change from King's College.
Tom specialises in selling carbon removal at Supercritical and hosts The Carbon Removal Show podcast.
