CDR Monthly Recap - April 2024

CDR Monthly Recap - April 2024

We are back with another edition of the CDR Monthly Recap, a monthly round-up of some of the top news, developments, and market updates from the world of durable carbon removal. April saw big developments in carbon removal, from the award of a subsidy of 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to the approval of the Carbon Removal Certification Framework. We see continuing maturation in the market, with new methodologies, protocols, and reports being published and the announcement of new broad-ranging partnerships and agreements.

Read on to learn more about what’s happening in the world of durable CDR!Partnerships and Agreements

Image source: Pexels, Markus Winkler

Danish Energy Agency awarded CDR procurement contracts worth 1.1 million tons of CDR to three companies - Biocirc, Bioman ApS, and Carbon Capture Scotland. It is the world’s largest CDR subsidy award to date.

In a new multi-year offtake agreement with Neustark, NextGen CDR announced the purchase of mineralized CO2 in demolished concrete from 18 projects across Switzerland, Germany, and other European countries. Volumes and terms were not disclosed.

The Association Française pour les Émissions Négatives (AFEN), or the French Association for Carbon Removal, officially launched in Paris to become only the second CDR industry association in Europe after Germany’s Deutscher Verband für negative Emissionen e.V. (DVNE). With over 30 member organizations, the initiative aims to develop the CDR industry in France.

Environmental consultancy C-Zero announced a deal to buy 2,000 tons of CDR from power generation group Drax. The deal, which converts a previous MoU into a firm offtake agreement, is part of Drax’s deployment of carbon-negative BECCS in the U.S.

Vaulted Deep, a BiCRS company, announced the delivery of 1,666 tons of CDR to Frontier as part of a pre-purchase agreement in September 2023.

India-based Enhanced Weathering (EW) startup Mati Carbon announced the delivery of its first tons to a group of buyers facilitated by Frontier. This is the first delivery in EW to come out of the Global South.

UK insurer Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) purchased a portfolio of carbon removals supported by CUR8, to neutralize its operational emissions, in line with its climate commitments and long-term strategy to be net zero by 2050.

Canada's largest urban innovation hub, MaRS Discovery District, purchased CDR credits from five Canadian ventures - Arca, Gaia Refinery, Planetary Technologies, TerraFixing, and CarbonRun, through its Mission from MaRS program. As a result, MaRS became one of the first Canadian non-profit organizations to purchase carbon removal credits.

Financing

Image source: Climeworks

Direct Air Capture company Climeworks was awarded $24.2 million from ENOVA, the state-owned enterprise owned by the Norwegian government’s Ministry of Climate and Environment. Funding will go towards a feasibility study for a multi-kiloton-capacity direct air capture & storage (DAC+S) plant in Norway.

Ocean carbon removal tech company Captura extended its Series A funding to $45.3 million. National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital joined as new investors in the round.

As part of its 2024 federal budget and as highlighted by Carbon Removal Canada, the Canadian Government expanded the scope of its $135 million Low-Carbon Fuel Procurement Program to support permanent carbon removal solutions that will help to reduce the intensity of the government’s transportation fleet.

Policy and Research

Image source: Puro.earth

Puro.earth released a new report highlighting the rapid expansion of the global engineered carbon removal market along with insights and trends across CDR retirements, supply, and demand, along with the emergence of the U.S. as a global leader in the CDR market in 2023.

The European Parliament approved the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) with a 441-139 vote. The CRCF, recognized as the world’s first carbon removal certification plan, received a provisional agreement in February, and the framework is set to be adopted into a law.

Isometric announced the official launch of its registry by issuing its first CDR credits to Frontier buyers for biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) company Vaulted Deep. Isometric also certified its Enhanced Weathering (EW) protocol, with Eion and InPlanet becoming the first project developers to sign up.

Gold Standard and Summit Carbon Solutions announced the publication of an engineered carbon removal and storage methodology. Developed by Summit Carbon Solutions, Methodology for Biomass Fermentation with Carbon Capture and Storage (BFCSS) became the first geologic storage methodology approved under Gold Standard for the Global Goals.

CDR marketplace Nori announced the development of a new methodology called Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC+S), which is published under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 4.0) to facilitate standardization within the industry and to promote the simplification of requirements for project developers who may want to operate through multiple registries. Nori has opened it up for public feedback after concluding an expert review phase.

Allied Offsets launched a new report in April titled “Fast Start to 2024: CDR Market Update, 2024” highlighting some of the top trends in the CDR market in Q1 2024 across pricing, investment, and capacity.

Research firm Rhodium Group released a report assessing the landscape of different CDR approaches and policy options to help CDR scale to the level required in 2050. The report also suggests that the US must spend roughly $100 billion annually on CDR to meet its climate goals.

XPRIZE announced the Top 100 carbon removal innovators competing in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition. These teams represent innovative solutions for CDR across methods. Carbonfuture's MRV system will collect performance & verification data from the top 20.

The Japanese government announced that it will accept durable CDR voluntary carbon credits in Green Transformation (GX-ETS), its national emissions trading system. The move came with the recent rise of national carbon mechanisms in Asia, creating space for high-quality voluntary credits for compliance.

Leaderboard Updates

39,400 tonnes of CDR were sold by suppliers in April. Given that the 2023 total was 4.6M tonnes and 531K tonnes for Q1 2024, it was a relatively slow month. Listed below is the April leaderboard for top suppliers:

Events round-up - April 2024

Image source: SF Climate Week

The OpenAir Collective’s Episode 100 of This Is CDR featured Dr. Phil De Luna, Chief Carbon Scientist and Head of Engineering at Deep Sky, who discussed how the company is building large-scale infrastructure in Canada to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate.

This year’s edition of the SF Climate Week in San Francisco saw a host of in-person events centered around carbon removal hosted by organizations such as Carbonfuture, NextGen CDR, Carbon Business Council, clever carbon, Napachar, Isometric, Charm Industrial, and many more.

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) convened a panel discussion discussing the current state of ocean CDR, including the status of different approaches; the policy and regulatory landscape; research gaps; and the importance of responsible scaling.

The 2nd edition of the Enhanced Rock Weathering Conference was held at Yale University bringing together different voices and perspectives in the field including researchers, academics, market stakeholders, and others to attend and share their insights and contribute to the advancement of the ERW industry.

Check out the CDR Events Calendar to stay updated with upcoming CDR events in April and beyond.

CDR.fyi Updates and Research

2024 Q1 Durable CDR Market Update - Blossoming Biochar

The 2024 Q1 Durable CDR Market Update was our most popular piece in April. In this report, we analyzed and uncovered some key trends from the durable carbon removal market in Q1 2024 including sales, deliveries, top purchasers, suppliers, sectoral analysis, and the geographical footprint of CDR suppliers and purchasers. A comprehensive report with trending, sectoral and geographic analysis and other insights is available to Data Partners and Platform Subscribers.
Launch of the CDR.fyi API:In April, we also launched the CDR.fyi API to help companies access real-time durable CDR data for various use cases including lead generation, tracking order updates, enhancing climate project ratings and analysis, and tracking industry trends with custom dashboards. Contact us at partners@cdr.fyi for more information on using the API.

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