Climate Vault Helps Advance Innovative Carbon Removal Projects with the Potential to Capture Up to 15,000 Metric Tons of CO2
2024年7月30日 - 11:00PM
ビジネスワイヤ(英語)
Nonprofit’s advanced market commitment is
driving innovation in technology critical for confronting climate
change, aligned with new federal principles for high-integrity
carbon markets
Climate Vault, Inc. today announced its Tech Chamber, led by
former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, selected Carbon Lockdown
and Octavia Carbon for its 2023 Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
Innovation Award through its annual RFP process. This is the first
time the Tech Chamber’s rigorous standards for CDR solutions have
been met. The Carbon Lockdown and Octavia Carbon projects have the
combined potential to remove 15,000 metric tons of CO2 from the
atmosphere.
These approvals validate the Climate Vault mission of reducing
global CO2 emissions and stimulating innovation in CDR
technologies. Climate Vault has made a large volume advanced market
commitment to purchase removed CO2, currently totaling over 1.1
million metric tons and growing. Carbon Lockdown and Octavia Carbon
were chosen from a pool of more than 50 CDR companies that applied
for consideration in response to Climate Vault’s 2023 request for
proposals (RFP). The number of applicants increased five-fold from
Climate Vault’s first RFP issued in 2021, underscoring the power of
the advanced market commitment.
“Virtually all plans to limit climate change rely on the removal
of past CO2 emissions from the atmosphere. The problem is that
these technologies are largely unproven at prices that would make
them widely economical or scalable,” said Michael Greenstone,
Co-Founder of Climate Vault and the Milton Friedman Distinguished
Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago. “Hope
is not a strategy. We at Climate Vault believe that economic
incentives, like our advanced market commitment, are vital to
unlocking the necessary innovation. We couldn’t be more excited
that Carbon Lockdown and Octavia Carbon are the first two companies
to have their technology validated by the Tech Chamber as
trustworthy for credibly removing CO2 from the atmosphere.”
Situated in rural Maryland, Carbon Lockdown’s project can
collect up to 5,000 net metric tons CO2-equivalent of
sustainably-sourced woody biomass and bury and sequester it in a
“wood vault.” The wood vault is specially-engineered to prevent
decomposition and re-release of the biomass' embodied CO2 back into
the atmosphere. Octavia Carbon is the Global South's first direct
air capture (DAC) company based in Nairobi, Kenya. They are
developing geothermal integrated DAC machines that filter CO2 from
the atmosphere. Leveraging Kenya’s geology along the Rift Valley,
the captured CO2 will be injected underground for secure and
permanent storage. Their pilot DAC+Storage project that will be
commissioned later this year will initially have the capacity to
capture and securely store up to 10,000 net metric tons over 10
years.
Climate Vault’s RFP for innovative CDR technologies includes a
comprehensive evaluation by its Tech Chamber, whose rigorous due
diligence process identifies only the most effective and credible
projects to provide verified removals. The Tech Chamber is led by
former U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz with scientific experts
from MIT, Princeton, Harvard University, and UC San Diego (Scripps
Oceanography). Because of their process and combined years of
experience, the Climate Vault Tech Chamber’s due diligence process
has unique expertise to judge CDR companies and their projects on
the issues of additionality, leakage, and permanence that plague
the voluntary carbon market (VCM).
“CDR is essential if the United States and other countries are
to reach net-zero emissions – and eventually a net-negative
emissions economy,” said Moniz. “Supporting innovative CDR, like
the projects announced today, is a critical step at this early
stage of progress towards gigaton scale legacy carbon removal from
the atmosphere and upper layers of the oceans.”
While efforts towards emission reduction and decarbonization are
vital, it is widely believed that CDR technologies are needed. The
field, however, is still in its infancy. Novel methods—technologies
that are partially- or fully-engineered—account for only 0.1
percent of global CDR, according to the 2023 State of Carbon
Dioxide Removal Report. For removal of historical CO2 emissions to
succeed, there must be immense advancements of novel CDR methods
this decade.
The Climate Vault approach to CO2 reduction involves purchasing
and “vaulting” carbon allowances on government-regulated compliance
markets to deliver trusted and verifiable CO2 reductions. This
approach eliminates the risk of greenwashing that has dominated the
landscape of voluntary carbon markets recently. Since its public
launch in May 2021, Climate Vault has purchased and “vaulted” more
than 1.1 million metric tons of CO2 emission allowances from
compliance markets with support from its more than 50 institutional
partners and hundreds of individual donors. These vaulted
allowances have already helped to reduce the expected damages from
climate change by more than $250 million. Climate Vault’s solution
then goes one step further by using the value of the vaulted
allowances to spur innovation of CDR technologies, while remaining
faithful to its commitment to donors to help reduce their carbon
footprint. Only once removals are achieved by Tech Chamber Approved
project providers and verified will the allowances be transitioned
into permanent removals.
This announcement aligns closely with the Biden-Harris
Administration's recently unveiled Principles for High-Integrity
Voluntary Carbon Markets, which emphasize credibility,
verifiability, and transparency—cornerstones of Climate Vault’s
operational ethos. These new principles support innovative
solutions to the climate crisis and validate Climate Vault’s
commitment to rigorous due diligence and integrity in both the
carbon reduction and carbon removal spaces.
“The Climate Vault organization’s approach is unique in its
ability to deliver a ton of verifiable, brand-safe reduction today
through the compliance markets, which converts to a ton of CDR,
tomorrow,” said Jon Cohen, CEO of Climate Vault Solutions—the
exclusive sales and marketing partner of the Climate Vault, Inc
nonprofit. “Our approach avoids the greenwashing risk that,
unfortunately, has characterized many approaches in the voluntary
carbon market, while democratizing access to cutting edge CDR
technologies. As the Biden-Harris Administration’s recent
announcement makes clear, ensuring accurate representation and
reporting on the removal or reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide
(or its equivalent) from the atmosphere is essential for businesses
and stakeholders.”
Learn more about each of the RFP recipients and the potential
impact of their projects on the climate crisis by registering to
attend Climate Vault’s upcoming free CDR webinar series.
About Climate Vault, Inc.
Founded at the University of Chicago, Climate Vault provides the
comprehensive solution for truly verifiable and immediate carbon
measurement, reductions and removals. Its integrated reduction and
removal program leverages government-regulated compliance carbon
markets to generate the environmental impact that today’s
employees, stakeholders and customers care about and expect from
organizations. By providing the most verifiable and immediate
carbon reduction solution on the market, at scale, Climate Vault is
the credible and all-inclusive alternative to traditional voluntary
carbon market programs. Learn more at www.climatevault.org.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240730251535/en/
Brandy Gaskins bgaskins@climatevault.com