Architecture for REDD+ Transactions Accepts Gabon TREES Program

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The Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) approved Gabon’s application to its TREES program to create carbon credits.

Gabon’s National Climate Council submitted an application to be part of ART’s TREES program. It stands for The REDD+ Environmental Excellency Standard.

TREES is ART’s standard for quantifying, monitoring, reporting, and verifying emission reductions and removals from REDD+ activities at a national and jurisdictional level. It helps hasten progress in meeting climate goals in line with the Paris Agreement.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) created the REDD+ framework. It guides activities in the forest sector that reduces emissions from deforestation/degradation.

Gabon’s Application to ART TREES Program

Per TREES listing, Gabon presented its first summary on REDD+ safeguards to the UNFCCC. This information covers the period from 2016 to 2020.

Gabon’s application to ART TREES will cover its entire forest in the span of 23.5 million hectares. The historical reference period is from 2013 up to 2017 while its crediting period is from 2018 to 2022.

In connection, Gabon developed a document detailing its Safeguards Information System for REDD+ in 2020. It gathered and collated the information through a national consultation and validation process.

But the country emphasized that its system is not yet fully centralized.

Gabon’s acceptance into ART TREES makes the total count of jurisdictions listed to 14. While other nations that are part of the program are from Asia, Oceania, Africa, and South America.

The application process starts with submitting the registration documents. Then a third-party verification body will verify them for ART Board’s approval. Once approved, the applying jurisdiction will get its serialized TREES credits from ART.

The carbon credits produced by Gabon’s application to ART TREES are to meet its forest management agreement with Norway.

ART TREES operates within the voluntary carbon market. Within this market, projects that reduce emissions via REDD+ are the most popular.

In fact, they receive the highest prices and represent the biggest share of the market value. The image below represents this. REDD+ refers to nature-based avoidance.

Source: S&P Global

Gabon’s REDD+ Initiative Under CAFI

Gabon made a deal with Norway for $150 million of funding for forest management and conservation activities.

This agreement is under the multi-donor Central African Forest Initiative (CAFI). CAFI supports central African nations with rich forests to pursue climate goals.

In 2019, Gabon and CAFI signed a forest management agreement for a 10-year period. This results in a deal obliging the country to reduce its emissions and increase CO2 absorptions through natural forests.

The government of Norway paid an initial $17 million last June 2021 for emissions cuts in 2016 and 2017 only.

Under CAFI, Gabon was the first African nation to get payments for REDD+ efforts.

Gabon is already absorbing about 140 metric tons of CO2 a year, making it a low deforestation country. Yet, CAFI said that its payment is still not enough for Gabon to unleash its full potential to cut emissions.

This is why new mechanisms are vital to providing incentives for high forest low deforestation (HFLD) countries. And so, Gabon’s application to the ART TREES program offers a good incentive for it to maintain its forest.

Meanwhile, Gabon is creating its national REDD+ registry to track payments from various mechanisms. Also, it has a climate change law requiring that all credits created must enter the registry.

Even if issuances are from voluntary carbon standards like ART TRESS, the government still has full ownership rights to them. This is because REDD+ is an initiative made through national policies and measures.

Conversely, a similar agreement between Norway and Indonesia ended last year due to delayed payment.

The results of UNFCCC’s analysis of Gabon’s application to ART TREES will be up this year and posted on the REDD+ information hub.

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Tesla Carbon Credit Sales Jump by 116%

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Tesla beat 1st quarter income expectations with more than double previous quarters’ carbon credit sales.

Tesla has been criticized for its previous years’ earnings being dependent on the sales of its carbon credits. These credit sales have been a major driver of Tesla’s profits over the years.

But since it separated reporting its regulatory credits from other sales, it showed that it’s profitable.

The carmaker revealed a big jump in its net income in its latest quarterly report. This is a plus for the company’s reputation as it managed to exceed Wall Street’s estimates. And this is amid the worst supply chain shocks hitting the entire industry right now.

Tesla’s profits on electric vehicles totaled $3.22 a share, beating the $2.27 estimates. Also, actual revenue rose to $18.8 billion, higher than $17.9 billion estimates.

Most interesting is its $679 million carbon credit sales. It’s more than double the prior quarter’s sales of $314 million and is even much higher than its Q1 2021 sales ($518 million). Its Q2 2021 and Q3 2021 credit sales are $354 million and $279 million, respectively.

The chart below shows Tesla’s regulatory credit sales since Q1 2021.

Tesla’s regulatory carbon credit sales account for over 20% of its profits this quarter. Tesla has warned that carbon credit sales in the future will fluctuate and decline.

Tesla’s Regulatory Carbon Credit Performance

Tesla has earned billions already through its regulatory carbon credit sales. This allows other automakers to meet emissions regulations and avoid billions in fines.

Tesla has been receiving emissions credits from various local regulations sources like California’s ZEV program. These credits are then sold which helps the company’s bottom line.

Tesla has been getting paid by other carmakers for selling its carbon credits for years whose names used to be a secret.

But a report from Bloomberg revealed two famous names. These are General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). About how much exactly they’re buying, it’s between them and Tesla.

So far, it’s only Tesla that’s selling a lot of regulatory credits within the industry. Others even speculated that Volkswagen is also buying credits from Tesla to offset its huge emissions credit shortage in China. While others are striving to be at par with Tesla’s all-electric car production.

What Comes Next For Tesla’s Regulatory Carbon Credits?

Governments are tightening up their regulations to decarbonize the automotive industry. This is because of the urgent need to tackle climate change and the industry’s huge emissions.

In a sense, this seems to drive Tesla’s carbon credit sales further up in the coming years. Plus, the company remains the most-valuable zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) maker by volume.

Unfortunately, other major automakers are also catching up on their own ZEVs programs. It means that they will rely less on Tesla in meeting the regulatory carbon credit cap.

For instance, Europe’s Stellantis that owns FCA (once Tesla’s biggest buyer of carbon credits) planned to sell more of its own ZEVs.

In fact, it had significant emissions reductions in 2021 with its electrification ramp-up. This involves its battery electric vehicles and low emission vehicle programs.

The European carmaker also pledged to reach net-zero by 2038 through various measures. These include energy efficiency, renewable energies, technological innovations, and carbon capture and storage.

Considering this, it appears that Tesla has to continue its efforts to have more deliveries to its customers and do better in reducing costs.

Still, will Tesla’s carbon reduction initiatives produce more regulatory carbon credits?

Tesla’s Net-Zero Strategy

Tesla’s all-electric car lineup has been helping cut down emissions in the industry. This is a big part of Tesla’s mission to speed up the transition to a sustainable energy ecosystem.

Yet, the carmaker remains less transparent of its decarbonization strategies. It still has not made any public commitment on net-zero or carbon-negative targets.

What is only shared so far is its plans to make EVs more available to consumers by using profits from new models to make subsequent models less costly.

Currently, the carmaker is providing energy generation and storage products using solar power. It also has a network of Supercharger stations for EVs across North America, Europe and Asia. These contribute to Tesla’s regulatory carbon credit generation.

But for its clear and detailed net-zero roadmap like Stellantis has, the public is still waiting for Tesla’s disclosure.

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Carbon Project Developer Earns Unicorn Status, Partners with Swisscom

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South Pole, a Swiss carbon project developer, earned a Unicorn status while partnering with Swisscom.

Unicorn is a term used to refer to startup companies with a value of over $1 billion without going public. Any startup dreams to reach this valuation status and South Pole recently got it.

Carbon offset prices have increased by over 400% in the past year. This boosted the valuation of firms in the space while enticing lots of investments.

Swisscom’s minority investment in South Pole is one of them.

South Pole’s Carbon Project With Swisscom

South Pole started operations in 2006. Since then, it financed about 1,000 emission reduction projects in over 50 countries.

The company said that its founders and staff hold the majority share in the business.

After raising a couple of huge investments this year, the South Pole was able to reach more than $1 billion in value.

Some of them are from Singapore’s Temasek and the US’ Salesforce Ventures in February. And now, the climate solutions company is entering another partnership with Swisscom.

Swisscom is a major telecommunications provider in Switzerland. It took a minority investment in South Pole through a partnership on data digitization and sustainability.

World’s Largest Carbon Project Developer

In 2021 alone, South Pole closed deals to create over 60 new carbon projects worldwide. And it still aims to develop as many or more projects in 2022.

The firm holds a market share of about 20%, making it the world’s largest carbon project developer. It focuses on Asia where sources of carbon credit supply are huge.

While the company also trades carbon offsets, it’s not its core business. It uses trade only when offloading surplus volumes to intermediaries.

Likewise, it trades to buy certain credits on behalf of its business advisory clients.

Shifting its focus: From trading to providing solutions

Originally, South Pole’s core business was on carbon project development. But in the recent decade, the firm managed to create a massive climate solutions business.

This involves providing advice to about 3,000 companies on how to cut down their emissions.

Renat Heuberger, the company’s CEO, said that,

“The market value was solely in the upstream 16 years ago but it began to shift to the downstream from 2012.”

Currently, each of the two businesses (creating carbon projects and providing climate solutions) takes half of the firm’s activities. So, there’s now a balance between the two income streams.

Earlier this year, the carbon project developer made two key investments that boosted its market value. It acquired Carbonsink in Italy and invested in Sweden’s GoClimate.

The present partnership with Swisscom is on climate solutions. It is to help speed up South Pole’s investments in digitization and let its clients decide on a bigger scale.

Though trading carbon is one of its business activities, the company’s aim is more than that. It plans to focus on climate solutions where long-term investments from companies are pouring in.

After all, the biggest trend right now is investing in massive carbon reduction and removal solutions.

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Del Monte Foods Joins The Race to Net-Zero by 2050

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Del Monte Foods, a manufacturer of plant-based foods, pledged to be net-zero by 2050 in line with the Science-Based Targets Initiative’s (SBTi) Standard.

Del Monte Foods has been providing plant-based food products for over 130 years. It owns a portfolio of popular brands like Del Monte®, Contadina®, College Inn®, S&W®, and Joyba.

As Growers of Good, the company’s core purpose is to create a healthy and more hopeful tomorrow. And a critical part of that is its recent commitment to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

Del Monte Foods Key Initiatives Towards Net-Zero

To achieve its net-zero goal, Del Monte Foods promised to have measurable near-term targets. These include its science-based 2030 goals to reduce the Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in line with the 1.5°C warming limit.

Molly Laverty, ESG Manager at Del Monte Foods, said,

“It’s exciting to be aligned with the most aggressive path to net-zero… The food industry has an important role to play in reducing GHG emissions, and we commit to doing all we can to hasten progress.”

Currently, Del Monte Foods already made significant strides on its journey to decarbonization.

Here are the most important ones outlined in its 2021 ESG Report

Streamlined operations footprint

This includes stopping emissions not needed from facilities that operate at less than full capacity. For instance, replacing CFC refrigerants with a non-warming alternative like ammonia.

As a result, the firm achieved maximum output, electricity savings, and lower operating costs.

Doubled capital investment in production operations

This involves adding automation and other technologies that reduced waste and improve production efficiency.

An example is installing a water recycling system. It reuses the water that conveys foods, leading to a reduction in water usage of 1,000 gallons per day.

Invested in renewable energy

Del Monte Foods installed a 3MW solar array at its Hanford, CA facility, one of the company’s biggest sites. It generated 3.3 million kW hours of electricity that avoided 749 metric tons of CO2 equivalents.

Increased use of rail

The firm used rail by 20% more in the past year. It also optimized truck transportation by raising average truck miles per gallon by 14.3%.

Reduced food waste

This pioneering initiative involves diverting over 25 million pounds of food from landfills. It was due to upcycling efforts and food donations done by the company for 2 years.

The upcycled products are put in a can and given to those facing food insecurity.

How Del Monte Foods plans to reach net-zero

A lot of companies are buying carbon credits to offset their GHG emissions as one way to hit net-zero goals. Del Monte Foods doesn’t go for that but rather opted to cut the bulk of its existing emissions.

The company prefers this approach in line with the Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi) criteria. One major component of it is reducing at least 90% of baseline emissions.

The table below shows the firm’s carbon footprint from 2019 up to 2021 per emissions scope.

Scope 3 data presented in the report reflects employee travel only.

It appears that the company has a long way to go in cutting its Scope 1 emissions.

And so, Del Monte Foods plans to invest more in areas where it can achieve massive reductions and make more progress toward its net-zero pledge.

These include carbon footprint in both direct and indirect operations, Scopes 1 and 2. In particular, the company seeks to invest more in the following:

Renewable energy,
Automation,
Transportation efficiency,
Regenerative agricultural practices, and
Eco-friendly packaging innovation

Regenerative Agricultural Practices

This initiative involves investments in sustainable agriculture and biodiversity protection among partner growers. Key measures include:

Regenerating topsoil by rotating crops, using cover crops, and applying organic compost.
Analyzing new plant varietals to ensure they adapt well to the local environment.
Employing integrated pest management to reduce pesticide runoff into waterways.
Banning pesticide application when pollinators are present.

Eco-friendly Packaging Materials

A big aspect of Del Monte Foods’ net-zero promise is reducing its footprint in packaging. Hence, the firm will invest more in new materials and redesign the existing ones.

Part of this effort is developing a compostable fruit cup using bioplastics. Also, a fruit cup that contains post-consumer recycled content.

The ultimate goal is to use much lesser pounds of materials for packaging. Also, the firm will opt for packaging that uses a higher ratio of recycled materials.

After Del Monte Foods had registered its net-zero commitment with SBTi, it will then create specific 2030 emissions reduction targets.

Once those interim targets are official, they would be another important corporate net-zero report to watch out for.

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Marsh McLennan Reveals Commitment to Net-Zero by 2050

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Marsh McLennan, one of the world’s largest professional services firms, recently revealed its pledge to be net-zero by 2050.

The $80 billion firm provides services insurance brokerage, risk management, talent management, investment advisory, and management consulting.

It serves both commercial and consumer clients from 130 countries.

Part of its four businesses is helping clients pursue smart climate transitions. And the firm does it while also committing itself to fulfill low-carbon strategies.

The CEO, Dan Glaser said,

“Just as we advise our clients on how to execute the profound transformations required, we are committing to chart our own path to net-zero at Marsh McLennan.”

The company laid a path to net-zero across its operations by 2050 while aiming reduction of 50% by 2030. This target is set to align with the Science-Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) criteria.

Marsh McLennan Net-Zero Pledge Highlights

In 2020, the firm committed to reducing its emissions from Scopes 1, 2, and 3 (business travel) by 15% below 2019 levels by 2025.

The following chart shows Marsh McLennan’s carbon emissions (in metric tons CO2 equivalents) from 2019 to 2021 by emission scope.

It also indicates the firm’s emission intensity by headcount for the same period.

The table below defines each of the company’s scope emissions as shown in its 2021 ESG Report.

How did the global firm manage to hit its emission reduction target of 15% that quick?

Here are a couple of efforts that Marsh McLennan did that are paving the way to its net-zero commitment.

Making offices smarter (Scopes 1, 2)

In 2016, the company launched its Smart Office workplace initiative, allowing 51 offices to reduce their CO2 footprint.

It does so by using fewer resources and energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems.

Greening pantries (Scope 2)

In January 2021, Marsh planned to stop single-use plastics in all its office pantries by 2022.

At the end of 2021, 50% of its global offices have achieved this goal by asking workers to bring their own utensils, mugs, and water bottles.

A sustainable approach to travel (Scope 3)

This climate effort is in line with Marsh McLennan’s Green Traveler program. It educates colleagues on the sustainability of their business travel decision.

It also offers colleagues tips on how to make sustainable choices while flying, staying in a hotel, and renting a car.

Managing technology sustainably (Scopes 1, 2)

Marsh develops and delivers sustainable IT solutions that preserve resources and cut emissions. These include e-waste recycling, maintaining energy-efficient data centers, and reducing physical infrastructure.

Other key initiatives of Marsh McLennan toward net-zero commitment

To reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the company highlighted the following steps in its ESG Report.

Embracing learning opportunities (launched a 3-part webinar series focused on building sustainability efforts)
Building a global green team network
Strengthening environmental efforts in local communities
Helping clients implement climate and sustainability solutions

Finally, Marsh McLennan seeks to help protect the environment through sustainable investment.

The firm commits to aligning its portfolio decarbonization with a science-based net-zero target by 2050.

This applies across its multi-asset, multi-manager client portfolios in various regions worth $80B. These are in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Likewise, the company aims to reduce portfolio emissions by at least 45% on Dec 2019 baselines.

All these initiatives make Marsh McLennan closer to its goal of accelerating climate impact.

It is now part of the global movement to create solutions to keep warming below 1.5°C.

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Indonesia Government Confirms Suspension of Validating Carbon Projects

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The government of Indonesia has officially confirmed its suspension of validating some carbon projects.

Last week, the carbon credit issuances in the country were on hold due to regulatory concerns. It involved the 2021 credit issuances associated with a project in North Sumatra.

And according to the report by the Environment and Forestry Ministry or KLHK, there are other carbon projects included, too.

Carbon Projects Failed to Meet Indonesian Regulations

The main reason for the suspension of validating carbon projects in some regions is their failure to meet regulations.

In particular, carbon project validations in Sumatra and Kalimantan are halted. KLHK stressed that all carbon projects in Indonesia must abide by the forestry and climate change regulations.

Also, developers have to enlist their projects in the National Registry System (SRN).

While some carbon initiatives in Indonesia are regulatory compliant, others need more adjustments. And the forestry ministry has been clear about taking firm actions against non-abiding carbon projects.

For example, KLHK canceled self-declared carbon projects in Sebangau National Park last year. Then again, it terminated another carbon project proposed on the same site by an international organization.

Moreover, a similar project in Batang Gadis National Park, North Sumatra was also stopped this year. It’s for the same reason: failure to comply with the laws.

More recently, KLHK requested the RER Carbon Project developers to halt validations. The RER or Riau Ecosystem Restoration project aims to conserve a peat forest in Sumatra.

Despite operating for many years, the RER carbon project validation is also under suspension.

The Director General said that the project’s validation report didn’t provide correct information about its compliance. Plus, it did not consult with the ministry first before finishing its documents.

The official stated about carbon projects in Indonesia,

“Measures to tackle carbon emissions must have clear ultimate goals, not just fashionable ones… Their implementation must align with the level of commitment concerned.”

Hence, the RER project has to meet Presidential Regulation No. 98/2021 and other relevant laws first. This Presidential Decree regulates carbon trading using emissions trading and offsets.

Its issuance is vital to meeting the nation’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) goal by 2030. It’s the same for achieving its net-zero target by 2060.

Indonesia’s Hope for More Green Investments

KLHK’s strict measures are crucial to educating all players on Indonesian carbon markets. Abiding by regulations is very important to avoid suspension of carbon projects validation.

More so, the country aims to be a reference and destination for low-carbon investments in major sectors. These primarily include energy, manufacturing, and transportation.

Its recent partnership with Singapore on creating carbon-related projects and boosting carbon credits is an example.

The forestry ministry also wants to avoid double-counting on its NDC achievement. Otherwise, carbon projects in Indonesia will cause unwanted effects on climate change efforts.

The country’s NDC target is to reduce emissions by 41% by 2030. This goal is not affected by carbon trading activities in the market.

Meanwhile, the government hopes that investments in green projects in Indonesia will rise. This is due to more demand for green projects like electric cars and renewable energy.

In connection, reports suggest growing fundraising from carbon pricing ($52 billion in 2020). But for Indonesia to leverage the fund for carbon projects, it needs strong policy support and accountability.

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Growing Algae In The Desert to to Capture Carbon

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Brilliant Planet, a startup that harnesses the power of algae, shared its plan to capture carbon by growing algae in the desert.

Climate science emphasizes that fighting climate change requires removing carbon from the air. The recent scientific report from IPCC says that carbon removal has to scale up fast to limit warming to 1.5°C.

Companies have been working on various projects to capture and store CO2 permanently. The projects range from capturing carbon in concrete to sucking the carbon out of the air.

But no one has considered yet to grow vast quantities of algae in the world’s deserts to capture and store carbon.

Brilliant Planet’s Model on Permanent Carbon Capture and Storage

Since 2013, Brilliant Planet has been harnessing the power of algae as an affordable method of locking away carbon at the gigaton scale.

Its innovative process allows it to grow big quantities of algae in an open-air pond-based system in a desert.

According to Raffael Jovine, the startup’s co-founder and chief scientist,

“Per unit area, we can capture as much carbon, or even more, as a rainforest can. The difference is that, when a tree falls down, it returns 97% of the CO2 back to the air, whereas we can sequester all of it.”

The company’s production varies per test site. Its biggest production facility is in Morocco’s coastal desert with a 30,000m2 area.

Once its first large-scale plant (1,000 acres) is complete, it can remove about 40,000 tons of CO2 per year. This is equal to emissions produced by about 92,000 barrels of oil. After full scale-up, the startup’s system projects to remove 2 gigatons of CO2 a year.

What makes Brilliant Planet’s approach to carbon capture and storage clever is this:

Instead of upscaling a test tube (growing algae inside a bioreactor), it’s downscaling the ocean.

It refers to how its proprietary system works in growing algae, capturing CO2, and storing it for good. Here are the main processes involved.

Pumps seawater from the coast to the facility. This water contains nutrients needed by algae to grow, plus the CO2 from the ocean.
Algae grow and capture carbon.
Harvests algae between 18 and 30 days.
Filters water and returns it back to the ocean. This water is less acidic.
Dries the algae and buries them under the desert sand where captured CO2 is stored.

Hence, the firm’s approach is using natural processes and natural algal blooms, and then taking them on land on a very large scale.

Brilliant Planet algae production site

The Approach Value to Carbon Credit Market

Brilliant Planet’s CO2 capture and storage model looks promising in tackling climate change. But how valuable would it be for the carbon credit market?

Cost-Effectiveness

When happening in the ocean, algae blooms are only seasonal. The startup fixes this issue by using a proven method that can grow algae all year-round.

Better yet, its system can capture carbon at far less cost than other methods like direct air capture (DAC).

The company’s algae facility costs less than $50 per ton of captured CO2 to run. In comparison, DAC costs a lot more than that and up to 10x as much.

But same with DAC, the firm will sell carbon credits to those who seek to offset their emissions. The expected cost per ton of CO2, however, tends to be lower with algae due to the costs involved.

Measurability/Verifiability

Measuring CO2 stored in a vast rainforest or growing kelp in the ocean is very challenging. But this is not the case with Brilliant Planet’s system. Using algae grown on land to capture carbon and store it is easy to measure and verify.

The startup will bury the harvested algae close to the sand’s surface, about 1 or 3 meters underneath. The salty and dry environment of the desert will prevent the algae from decomposing.

As such, credit buyers can check out for themselves and verify that the algae with sequestered CO2 are buried indeed. There are GPS coordinates that can show them where the firm buried those algae.

Scalability

The company also believes that its system has high scalability. This is because there are more than 300,000 square miles of flat, coastal desert land in the world for the firm to use.

From Africa to South America to Australia, there’s a vast expanse of unused desert land that has no alternative use. Growing algae on them for carbon capture and storage would be useful.

Brilliant Planet is considering if it should “pre-sell” any of its carbon credits to companies wanting to cut emissions and planning to be net-zero.

Its operation will start soon and the building of its first commercial facility will be in 2024.

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CarbonCure and Invert Sign A Carbon Credit Purchase Agreement For CO2 Storage

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CarbonCure and Invert signed the world’s biggest carbon credit purchase agreement for CO2 storage.

The current carbon credit purchase agreement will help speed up CarbonCure’s rapid scaling. It will also be a major step for the firm to reach its CO2 footprint target.

CarbonCure plans to create 500 million metric tons of annual CO₂ reduction and removal by 2030. That is roughly the same as removing 100 million cars from the road each year.

In effect, the carbon credit market may expect to see more activities on CO2 removal pathways. And the new credit purchase agreement formed by Invert, CarbonCure, and Ripple, is one of them.

The Biggest Carbon Credit Purchase Agreement to Date

The partnership worth $30 million is, so far, the biggest investment in permanent CO2 removal and storage.

CarbonCure and Invert are the majority stakeholders in the agreement. Ripple holds a minority investment stake.

The 10-year carbon credit deal centers on permanent CO2 storage through carbon mineralization. It will help increase investment in innovative carbon removal technology research and development.

Also, the agreement will contribute to massive reductions and removals of GHG from the air.

What does it mean for each party to the agreement?

For CarbonCure Technologies: Scale Up

CarbonCure Technologies is a carbon removal tech company. It offers solutions that allow concrete producers to use captured CO2 to make low-carbon mixes.

The firm’s technology injects captured carbon into fresh concrete, locking up the carbon so it doesn’t return to the air.

This process also lowers the amount of cement required in each mix. As such, the concrete producer’s carbon footprint decreases. This is critical as cement production accounts for about 7% of annual global emissions.

Hence, CarbonCure’s permanent carbon storage technology aids the concrete industry in cutting emissions.

The tech firm tracks and measures CO2 from the point of capture to mineralization. This method enables carbon credit buyers like Invert to track the precise date and location of CO2 they paid to store for good.

For Invert Inc: High-Quality Carbon Credit Purchase

Invert is a specialized emissions reduction and carbon offsetting firm. It invests in carbon offset projects that create high-quality reduction and removal credits.

In particular, it focuses on helping businesses to reduce their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Part of that is investing in carbon reduction and removal credit purchases. Its carbon credit purchase agreement with CarbonCure and Ripple is one of them.

Invert’s Chairman, Mark Zekulin, said,

“We recognize that long-term removals are critical to achieving the world’s net-zero objectives…”

Hence, Invert commits to supporting developers and technologies in the carbon removal space. The firm believes that CarbonCure has the capacity to help them in this matter.

For Ripple: A lot of carbon credits

Ripple provides crypto and blockchain solutions to other businesses. It’s a minority funder to this largest carbon credit purchase agreement.

It invests in return for millions of carbon credits for permanent carbon storage.

All parties agree that concrete offers a global and immediate option for permanent storage of captured CO2.

This agreement suits the concrete industry’s pledge to reduce its emissions by 25% by 2030.

And on its way to net-zero by 2050, the industry plans to cut 36% of its emissions by using CO2 capture and storage technologies.

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GEO, N-GEO, C-GEO – What’s the difference among these carbon markets?

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The carbon sector is still in its early stages, but there are already a few different products available in the market.

If you’ve been spending lots of time in the carbon credit space, you may have seen the terms GEO, N-GEO, and C-GEO thrown around before.

These products have been around for a while now, but like much of the carbon sector, have flown under the radar of most investors.

If you don’t know what they are, or if you do but don’t really know what the difference between them is, then keep reading on.

Offset vs. Allowance Credits

 You’re probably already aware of European Union Allowances (EUAs) and California Carbon Allowances (CCAs).

These carbon credits are allowances from their respective compliance regimes in the European Union and the U.S. state of California, respectively.

In essence, they allow their holders to emit a corresponding amount of carbon equivalent pollution every year. Another example of this type of allowance would be the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) allowances.

These allowances are tradable, and a secondary futures market has also been risen up around them. These carbon allowance futures are what many of the largest carbon funds, such as KRBN, hold.

GEO, N-GEO, and C-GEO are similar to those carbon allowance futures, but there’s one major difference.

The big difference is that instead of being based on compliance market allowances, the GEO line of products are based on voluntary market carbon offsets instead.

In fact, it’s even in their names – GEO stands for Global Emissions Offset.

There are the CBL Global Emissions Offset (GEO), the CBL Nature-Based Global Emissions Offset (N-GEO), and the CBL Core Global Emissions Offset (C-GEO) contracts. Those are the three types of offset contracts referred to when GEO, N-GEO, and C-GEO are mentioned.

These three offsets were launched by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group), the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, in order to respond to the growing demand for carbon offset products in the carbon sector.

Now, just like how there’s a difference between the EUA, CCA, and RGGI futures, there’s also a difference between the GEO, N-GEO, and C-GEO offset futures.

However, it isn’t as straightforward as each one simply being based in a different locale, so we’ll go over the major differences next.

We’ll start with the first product, launched in late 2020 – GEO.

GEO (Aviation Industry Carbon Offset)

GEO’s futures contracts are based on carbon offsets from three major registries – Verra, the American Carbon Registry, and the Climate Action Reserve. Tech-based projects (that is, projects not falling under Agriculture, Forestry, or Other Land Use categories) that follow the International Civil Aviation Organization’s CORSIA standard can be found here.

To put it more simply, GEO futures contracts are based on high-quality carbon credits that adhere to the international aviation industry standard for emissions offsetting. This is why they are sometimes also referred to as “Aviation Industry Carbon Offsets”.

Now, while the CORSIA standard was originally intended for use by the aviation industry, by no means are GEO contracts limited only to airlines and other companies in the aviation sector.

CORSIA is a stringent framework that was carefully devised over several years with guidance from the United Nations, which is why offsets that meet the CORSIA criteria are verifiable and high-quality. This makes them a great choice for any company or individual looking for a tangible means of offsetting their emissions.

N-GEO (Nature Based Carbon Offset)

Following GEO, we have N-GEO, which was launched just a few months after the former was.

N-GEO is comprised of nature-based offsets projects from the Verra registry – projects that fall under the Agriculture, Forestry, or Other Land Use (AFOLU) categories. This is in contrast to GEO, which does not contain any AFOLU projects.

Nature-based solutions have many advantages and disadvantages when compared to tech-based offset projects. For instance, they can provide valuable contributions to biodiversity, but it’s also often considered more difficult to accurately verify the amount of carbon actually offset in nature-based projects.

Because of this, N-GEO includes a large chunk of the offset market that isn’t covered by GEO. This allows more options for companies looking to mitigate their own emissions, particularly those that belong to the AFOLU sector themselves.

C-GEO (Tech Based Carbon Offset)

Last but not least is C-GEO, which was launched at the beginning of 2022. The C in C-GEO stands for Core, which refers to the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets’ Core Carbon Principles (CCPs).

The CCPs are the groundwork laid by the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets for creating a global, large-scale carbon credit marketplace. C-GEO contracts are comprised of tech-based, non-AFOLU offset projects from the Verra registry that align with the CCPs.

Though first established in January 2021, the CCPs are a work in progress and are undergoing further refinement by an independent governance body comprised of a number of representatives, advisors, and institutes for climate action. Further expansions to the CCPs are expected in phased launches through 2022.

As such, C-GEO contracts are still in their infancy. However, it’s quite possible that the CCPs will become the new unifying global standard for offset projects given the amount of expertise and clout backing the standard.

That makes C-GEO futures a great choice for companies looking for high-quality technology-based offset credits that also want to bank on the future of the Core Carbon Principles.

Below is a table from the CME Group summarizing the primary differences between GEO, N-GEO, and C-GEO:

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