Certifying land-use based carbon dioxide removals : outline of a strawman proposal

Abstract

Science is clear that to reduce the impacts of climate change increasing amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) will have to be removed from the atmosphere, even if all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were to be completely eliminated. Land-based activities, such as forest, agricultural or soil management, have the potential to remove and/or store significant amounts of carbon. However, a number of concerns exist around the measurability and the non-permanence of natural carbon sinks, with related risks of ‘greenwashing’ due to reversals, leakages, and double-counting. These concerns will need to be addressed satisfactorily when developing a robust, transparent, and dynamic EU-wide CO2 removals certification system. It should be developed step-by-step and allow for learning-bydoing. Initial focus should be on those land-based CO2 removal options for which high-quality monitoring capability already exists, such as afforestation, reforestation, agro-forestry and biochar. Transparency will be key. Each CO2 removal certificate – representing a tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere for a specified period of time – will have to carry a minimum set of information including geo-references, period of validity, methodologies used and on-going monitoring requirements to be followed. Additional information, for example, in terms of promoting biodiversity, could highlight co-benefits. The governance of an EU-wide certification system will have to clarify roles and responsibilities of different public and private actors, establishing sufficient checks and balances in developing methodologies and their use, keeping track of issuance, ownership, and transactions in the central EU registry, as well as regulating public access. If successful, an EU-wide CO2 removal certification system could set a new international standard. In the EU, it would lay the foundation for creating performance-based incentive systems, which can be created via standards, direct public support like under the Common Agriculture Policy, voluntary markets, and compliance markets such as the EU emissions trading system.