Rod Castro, Ph.D

Woke up this morning to learn about an unexpected and major development. Suddenly, we have a #carbonremovals standard under #Article6.4! Everyone expected this process to be slow. What changed? The Article 6.4 Mechanism Supervisory Body (SBM - new abbreviation!) chose not to wait for the CMA body approval (the formal process under the #ParisAgreement) and decided that "This version of this standard enters into force on 9 October 2024". Check out the standard here: unfccc.int/sites/default/… It's a fine line and likely an unprecedented step. Ending up without a CMA approval for the third year in a row would have been another blow to getting this #carbonmarket mechanism up and running. Instead, the SBM decided to start operationalising the necessary elements without the CMA's oversight. I'm already seeing two types of reactions. Many see that the SBM did what needed to be done. And there are also some voices questioning whether it went too far. Thoughts? Big thanks to Olga Gassan-zade for her continuous leadership and her latest post on this: linkedin.com/posts/olga-gas…

Carbon crediting for policies, not projects? Let's explore. In their spring 2024 edition, @CarbnMechnisms dig deeper into policy crediting under #Article6 - issuing #EmissionReductions or #CarbonRemovals in a new way that goes beyond projects and programmes. It turns out there is a lot more history behind this concept than I was aware of. There are also concrete examples of policy crediting already. The World Bank project on policy crediting in Uzbekistan seems to be up and running. The GGGI has looked at piloting Article 6 policy crediting in Indonesia, Morocco, Senegal and Vietnam. The main challenge that stands out to me is meeting the additionality criteria. As the Carbon Mechanism Review piece recommends, only policies that contribute to the conditional part of the #NDC should be eligible for crediting. With a general aspiration of moving away from conditional NDCs (or am I wrong?), wouldn't this concept provide another instrument that might instead lead to an undesired increase the conditional part of NDCs in some countries? Read the whole piece on policy crediting here, starting on page 38: carbon-mechanisms.de/en/publication…

The largest DAC facility is open for business in Iceland! @Climeworks officially unveiled their Mammoth plant yesterday. It’s a 9X scale up from Orca at 36,000 tons / year, safely stored with @carbfix The scale up is happening, and it’s wonderful to see. Thanks for having me!

On the occasion of the @IPCC_CH Synthesis Report (coincidentally!) -- if you'd like to spend 8 minutes with me on a journey about fossil phaseout & why we need to plan it carefully & righteously (#midtransition), have I ever got a TED talk for you. go.ted.com/emilygrubert

@EveTamme @IPCC_CH @KMollersten @readwise save

@IPCC_CH What is a methodology report? @KMollersten explains below. Technical but very necessary work.

The @IPCC_CH will prepare a methodology report on #CDR, #CCS and #CCU 👇

📢 UPCOMING EVENT—“COP28: Takeaways and Next Steps for #CDR” arranged by @airminers 📅10 January 2024 📍Zoom 🎤Olga Gassan-zade, Helen Bray, @EveTamme, @titojankowski lu.ma/cop28-recap

📣During #COP28UAE, the Guardian painted a misleading picture of #carbonmanagement technologies, failing to recognize the critical role of #CCS. Read our response here for more ⬇️ globalccsinstitute.com/news-media/lat… #EmissionsReduction #Decarbonisation #ClimateTargets #NetZero

The new UNEP emissions gap report includes a chapter focusing on carbon dioxide removal. It has a neat figure highlighting the feasibility, scalability, ease of MRV, environmental consequences, public perception, cost, and permanence of CDR pathways: unep.org/resources/emis…

Big news from the #Article6.4 Supervisory Body! The SB has approved the long-awaited recommendations methodologies and #carbonremoval. Just in time for #COP28 :) The SB members have done an enormous amount of work to make this happen. And whilst they agreed that the documents are far from perfect, these do represent an acceptable basis for the next steps. 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘀 The document on removals is very general in nature and includes numerous mandates for further guidance. Adding references to future work was one of the main solutions to finding compromises. So, a lot of additional work is needed to make this guidance operational. The great thing is that the document is technology-neutral and is written with the whole spectrum of carbon removal methods in mind. Several SB members also thanked the stakeholders for their copious input. Big thanks to the carbon removal community for engaging so actively this year! 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 We’ve arrived where we needed to be before COP. The recommendations on methodologies and removals will now be sent to CMA for approval during COP28. CMA may offer further guidance for these documents. And if the recommendations are approved, Article 6.4 will finally be operational. In general. We know plenty more guidance is needed and the SB will be very busy next year. And we also need COP28 to take some crucial decisions on registries. Recommendation on methodologies: unfccc.int/sites/default/… Recommendation on removals: unfccc.int/sites/default/… #ParisAgreement

Super interesting perspectives from climate experts on CDR. @KevinClimate @EveTamme @Oliver_Geden @Peters_Glen with others The last quote is among the best. By @hollyjeanbuck "The main mitigation deterrence risk is not from CDR, which few policymakers even know about, but from the fact that fossil fuels are entwined with governments and their stability across the globe. That should be our focus. If we do not get serious climate policy soon, we have bigger problems than debating how to best deal with the last 10% of emissions." nature.com/articles/s4301…

New blog post alert! This time, I'm exploring: • How the voluntary and compliance #carbonmarkets are converging • Does it make sense to keep using the dichotomy of voluntary and compliance markets? • Have we even managed to agree on what compliance markets are? • How do #Article6 markets fit into this picture? Tracking the size of the markets doesn't tell us enough; we need to embrace the matrix of voluntary supply, compliance supply, voluntary demand and compliance demand. This will also tackle the current confusion where some estimations expect voluntary markets to keep growing mid-to-long term, and others expect a contraction in the long term due to expanding compliance markets. Enjoy the read: evetamme.com/2023/11/09/con…

Buena semana para España. Empezamos con 93.000mill€ de la adenda y los ministros de energía comprometidos con net zero reunidos en Madrid. Acabamos lanzando Miura al espacio. De por medio, mundial, Doñana, Granada...¡Sigamos por este camino! elpais.com/ciencia/2023-1… vía @el_pais

Plenary approves tomorrow, he might start on 9 October. First job: get an ambitious #COP28 position at the Environment Council on 16 October with @teresaribera as strong ally. A week to navigate countries fighting how to phrase #fossilfuels phase out and the NDC increase to 57%.

The @IEA has a new Net Zero Emissions 2050 scenario, 2 years after the first edition. This is fascinating, they still get to net zero fossil CO2 emissions in 2050 & they do it with less carbon dioxide capture & removal! Delay does not mean more CCS/CDR! iea.org/reports/net-ze…

The Australian Bureau of meteorology @BOM_au have declared an El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). Find out more about both here 👇youtube.com/watch?v=WPA-Kp…

What would happen if the world cut meat and milk consumption in half? grist.org/agriculture/wh… Cows are often described as climate change criminals because of how much planet-warming methane they burp. But there’s another problem with livestock farming that’s even worse for the climate and easier to overlook: To feed the world’s growing appetite for meat, corporations and ranchers are chopping down more forests and trampling more carbon-sequestering grasslands to make room for pastures and fields of hay. Ruminants, like cattle, sheep, and goats, need space to graze, and animal feed needs space to grow. The greenhouse gases unleashed by this deforestation and land degradation mean food systems account for one-third of the world’s human-generated climate pollution.

Can emission reduction projects improve gender equality? Absolutely, and it's vital. Read the thread to find out how we promote gender equality in the projects we certify. 1/5🧵

Can DMRV increase the value of carbon credits and their prices?📈 Save the date: on September 19 at 2 pm, we’re hosting a breakout session at the #NorthAmericaClimateSummit 2023! Register now: reg.eventmobi.com/NACS2023