Bill Gates-Backed Group Aims to End Carbon Credits Conflict
Carbon credits are controversial, and often come alongside accusations of greenwashing.
However, the reality is that emissions can be unavoidable – in these cases, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) can provide a solution.
Rick Wayman, Director of Outreach at the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative (CRSI), says: “As I’ve gotten deeper into the carbon dioxide removal world over the past three years, I’ve become more and more optimistic about the potential that carbon removal solutions hold.
“I’m not a scientist, but I know enough to appreciate that any large-scale process needs to have rigorous, consistent standards at its core in order to be successful in the long term.”
So, how can it be certain that carbon dioxide removal is trustworthy and consistent?
Carbon Removal Standards Initiative
This new nonprofit aims to ensure that NGOs and policymakers have the science based information needed to ensure carbon offsetting can do good in the way the planet needs.
The CSRI says its work relies on three important realisations:
- Carbon removal is a public good
- Carbon removal supply and demand will be policy driven
- Solutions will fit into a range of regulated industries
Anu Khan, Founder and Executive Director of the CRSI, explains: “Operationalising this simple answer is going to be complicated. And it will take time.
“Civil society will have to play a role in making sure that policymakers and regulators – across jurisdictions, CDR pathways, and policy mechanisms – have access to financially unconflicted info on CDR quantification.
“Our mission is to provide technical assistance and capacity building for carbon removal policy, focused specifically on quantification standards. We are a philanthropically funded nonprofit project with no financial stake in the sale of credits or the growth of the carbon market.”
CSRI is a fiscally sponsored nonprofit project funded by philanthropic donors.
It does not accept corporate donations and its work is fully decoupled from the sale of carbon credits.
How is the CSRI funded?
CSRI is a spin out from Carbon180’s Entrepreneur In Residence programme that aims to grow the carbon removal field by pairing its CDR expertise with operational support.
Carbon180 is headquartered in Washington D.C. and was launched in 2015 at the University of California, Berkeley.
Breakthrough Energy, founded by Bill Gates, is another CSRI supporter.
Bill says: “When we’re experiencing record-breaking temperatures, fires, floods, and other extreme weather events each week, it’s hard not to be disheartened.
“Within that daunting reality, I am still an optimist.”
CSRI’s other funders include the Linden Trust for Conservation, Outlier Projects, the Grantham Foundation and the Larsen Lam Climate Change Foundation.
What is the CSRI doing?
CSRI will not be writing a meta-standard or setting a quality bay for carbon credits.
Instead, it intends to work from the bottom up, improving rigour and consistency in the many small steps that add up to a CRS.
This includes measuring the transport of dissolved inorganic carbon through rivers and estimating the carbon intensity of energy use for DAC.
Operationalising this simple answer is going to be complicated. And it will take time.
It says this is because a top-down approach causes socio-political and economic trade-offs.
CSRI’s first step is to build a knowledge management infrastructure to support rigour and transparency in both its own work and throughout the CRD ecosystem.
It is focusing its efforts where policy can drive a large volume of removals and where there are gaps or serious conflicts in industry-driven standards development.
CSRI works under the rules of US-based nonprofit organisations, but its work extends beyond US federal policy.
David Carlin, Head of Risk at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, says: “Here's the big question: Will these standards drive real change, or do they risk distracting us from needed emissions reductions by placing too much emphasis on technologies that are still in their infancy?
“As professionals committed to sustainability, we should critically evaluate the impact of such initiatives.”
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