What makes a trustworthy carbon removal credit?

It’s increasingly recognized that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies must be embraced to reach global net zero targets and mitigate the impact of climate change.  

 

As a consequence, we’re seeing increased scrutiny of carbon removal credits entering the market. At Elimini, we welcome this scrutiny. Emphasis on the quality and integrity of carbon credits is mostly driven by concerns regarding environmental outcomes and greenwashing practices that hindered some earlier iterations of carbon credit projects.  

At Elimini, we’re leading the way in carbon removal through our bioenergy with carbon capture and storage process (BECCS). Our BECCS process provides high-integrity carbon removal that adheres to the stringent principles outlined by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM).  

 

Below, we explore the standards we live by, and the methodology we leverage, to ensure that our removals will be verified and deliver real climate benefits.  

Supporting high-integrity carbon removal standards 

 

In response to the demand for high-integrity carbon removal credits, industry leaders are working quickly to develop rigorous standards that outline how high-quality credits should be made and governed. We ensure our carbon removals are aligned to the ICVCM principles through five key pillars.

 

1: Additionality  

Our BECCS projects are developed for the purpose of delivering carbon removals — i.e., they would not have been developed without the revenues from carbon credits being considered prior to the project beginning. We are also not legally required to capture CO₂, which aligns with regulatory additionality criteria. 

 

2: Permanence 

The CO₂ we capture will be in storage for tens of thousands of years, with a very low risk of reversal. 

 

3: Robust quantification 

Our removals are robustly quantified, based on conservative measurement approaches and sound scientific methods. 

 

4: Sustainable development 

At Elimini, we ensure our engineered removal technology creates positive outcomes for climate, nature and people across sourcing, capture and storage operations.  

 

5: Well-governed 

Our credits adhere to stringent governance principles: reliable tracking, transparent reporting, and independent validation and verification. 

 

This is a proven, but relatively new, technology and process. As part of our commitment to bringing robust standards to the carbon removal market, we’ve adopted the world’s first BECCS methodology, developed by our partners at Drax and Stockholm Exergi. This comprehensive methodology — in alignment with ICVCM’s core principles — creates a high-integrity approach for quantifying the net CDR contribution of a BECCS project.  

 

A conservative approach 

We take a conservative approach to the quantification of the carbon removed by our BECCS projects. We do this by widening the quantification boundary to include additional supply chain emissions which are not wholly related to the carbon removal activity. An example of this would be including biomass supply chain emissions within the quantification boundary of a project.  We know that BECCS has the potential to deliver large quantities of carbon removals. At Elimini, we plan to remove millions of tonnes of CO₂ every year with our international BECCS plants. 

 

We also want organizations to be confident that the sustainability benefits they can realize with this technology are rigorous, accurate and independently verified. Our high-integrity methodology details the criteria and approaches that developers should adhere to in each step of developing a credit-generating BECCS project. This methodology is validated by DNV, which is setting the standards for safe CCS (carbon capture and storage) projects. 

 

Key criteria for measuring net CO₂ removal through BECCS projects 

There are a number of key criteria that a BECCS project must adhere to in order to be eligible to issue CDR credits using this technology.  

1. Ensuring additionality 

Removals are only considered “additional” if carbon would not be removed without revenues from carbon credits. High-integrity BECCS projects must demonstrate that there was no legal requirement to capture CO₂ — this is called regulatory additionality — and also that carbon market revenues were considered before the project was started to meet prior consideration criteria.  

This additionality assessment is designed to follow a “standardized approach” as defined by ICVCM. 

 

2. Sustainable biomass 

Only forest biomass (i.e., organic matter) sourced from areas with stable and increasing forest carbon stock should be used — this excludes primary forests, old growth forests, highly biodiverse forests or those recently established on highly biodiverse grassland. Stringent criteria must also be applied to the sustainable management of forests and the maintenance of biodiversity. 

3. Storage and permanence 

A BECCS project is only considered high integrity if it is scientifically determined to have a negligible risk of reversal, and if there are high regulatory enforcement levels in place. In terms of permanence — or how long carbon is kept out of the atmosphere — high-integrity BECCS projects are expected to store >99% of the CO₂ over the first 1000 years, at least. 

4. No enhanced hydrocarbon recovery 

It is important to ensure that BECCS projects are not used in incentivizing the extraction of fossil fuels. Therefore, CO₂ captured through a high-integrity BECCS project should not be used to increase the amount of oil or natural gas that can be recovered from a reservoir that the project intends to use to deposit carbon. 

5. Safeguards for social and environmental impact 

At the very minimum, BECCS projects must have all relevant environmental and business permits where they are sourcing, capturing and storing carbon — and demonstrate robust stakeholder consultations to ensure no negative impacts are delivered to the area’s people or environment. Project developers should build on the safeguards outlined by ICVCM. 

6. Robust reporting, validation and verification  

A comprehensive monitoring framework enables third-party validation and verification bodies (VVB) to transparently assess project outcomes. To issue credits, the project must calculate net removals that have already taken place to ensure no double counting occurs — this should be calculated independently by a third-party VVB. 

 

Cautionary statement 

This communication contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include expectations related to targets, goals or objectives such as financed emissions targets, representation objectives and the achievement thereof, may be deemed “forward-looking statements.”  These statements are not historical facts or statements of current conditions, but instead are based on management’s current expectations and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. These statements are not guarantees of future results or occurrences and involve certain known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict and are often beyond our control. In addition, this communication contains statements based on hypothetical scenarios and assumptions, which may not occur or differ significantly from actual events, and these statements should not necessarily be viewed as being representative of current or actual risk or forecasts of expected risk. Actual results and financial conditions may differ materially from those included in these statements due to a variety of factors, including, among others, global socio-demographic and economic trends; energy prices; technological innovations; climate-related conditions and weather events; counterparty and client behavior and financial health; insurance applicability, legislative and regulatory changes; our ability to retain and attract qualified employees in a competitive environment for talent; and other unforeseen events or conditions, and the precautionary statements included in this document. Certain forward-looking statements referenced in this communication are also based on assumptions, standards, metrics, methodologies and frameworks for measurement, reporting and analysis of climate change that continue to evolve, vary across jurisdictions and regulatory bodies and are the subject of proposed regulatory changes in multiple jurisdictions, which may have a material impact on our future measurement and reporting, as well as the results of the efforts set forth in this communication. There is no assurance that goals or targets stated in this document (including interim targets) will be achieved or result in positive measurable outcomes. Information contained in this document, including commitments, goals, targets and objectives, and their related frameworks, methodologies or approaches, are subject to change without notice.