Scientists, corporate leaders, and policy advocates across the carbon removal industry are vocalizing the need for more support of the carbon market and CDR technologies. Puro.earth CEO Antti Vihavainen is no exception. Founded in 2019, Puro.earth became the first infrastructure to issue credits to engineered carbon removal methods. Biorecro met with Antti to discuss how Puro.earth selects its carbon removal projects, how the audit process works, and his hopes for the carbon market in the future.
How does the carbon crediting program at Puro.earth operate?
To be able to buy or sell something, one needs to have the object to be sold or bought. Our job is to issue that credit or in our case CO2 Removal Certificate or CORC. We issue CORCs by establishing a methodology on which suppliers of negative emissions make claims and provide the evidence to back their claims of carbon net-negativity. Then a third-party verifier conducts an audit and writes a statement and an audit report. Based on this, we can issue the certificates into the Puro Registry tracking the ownership of the credit in question.
That is our role at Puro.earth. We are the infrastructure underneath marketplaces that do the actual trading and our job is to provide the trust so that the buyer knows what they are buying, it’s standardized across different projects. The climate effect is harmonized across different methodologies and we make sure that the MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification) is done according to best practices.
How long does it take for a CDR supplier to be issued a CORC?
It varies greatly and mainly depends on the maturity of the project. If a project comes in and has all the documentation ready, has the life cycle assessment written, conforms with our requirements, and has all the other data, then it is a matter of three months. That is the minimum, realistic time frame within which we can organize the actual audits and then the issuance of credits. However, it can also be several years depending on the maturity of their project.
"In a BECCS project, when it is stored in a geologic formation and mineralized there, the CO2 risk of reversal is practically zero."
CDR technologies vary widely in their effectiveness and environmental impact. How does Puro.earth ensure the credibility and transparency of the carbon credits it offers?
All the methodologies that we have created harmonize the climate impact into two different categories and the distinction between these two categories is the duration of sequestration. One is 100 years+ and the other one is 1000 years+. We’ve chosen our methodologies in a way that there’s inherently very low risk of reversal. In a BECCS project, when it is stored in a geologic formation and mineralized there, the CO2 risk of reversal is practically zero.
We then deduct all the emissions that were created along the value chain, so that it is only the net negativity that we issue the credits for. In that sense, within our methodologies, the climate impact has been harmonized and the effectiveness of each CORC truly represents one tonne of negative emissions.
Does Puro.earth work with afforestation or other types of reduction offsetting?
No, we are focused on methodologies that have four main criteria that we use for selection. We want there to be a very low risk of reversal, the duration of sequestration has at least 100 years, quantification has to be scientific so we can measure the quantity of CO2, and it has to be dependent on climate finance.
"If there are biogenic emissions that can be captured, they should be captured and stored permanently."
Can you elaborate the role of BECCS in Puro.earth and its potential impact when it comes to carbon removal?
The role of BECCS in our platform is significant. There’s a huge promise, but it’s also a bit risky because of the regulatory landscape and the differences between different countries. Of course, in the US there’s the 45Q and in European countries there are different kinds of mechanisms to support the creation of these facilities. I think there’s still a little fluctuation in the different approaches. In our methodology, BECCS is a very solid way of doing carbon removal. If there are biogenic emissions that can be captured, they should be captured and stored permanently. It definitely makes a lot of sense to deploy all the BECCS capacity that can be deployed. Bioenergy means that the CO2 source is biogenic. It is not about carbon emissions reduction. It is carbon removal.
Puro.earth and Biorecro Project Collaboration
Critics argue that carbon credits could lead to a reliance on carbon offsetting and removal rather than actual reduction. Is there a way that Puro.earth addresses those concerns that credits are part of the broader reduction plus removal strategy?
There’s a very natural way of addressing it and that is the price. The cost of carbon removal is so high that there is no rational CFO on the planet that would happily pay $100-$300 per ton of emissions for all the emissions that a company is causing, if they weren’t already trying really hard to minimize their emissions. I don’t think that technology-based carbon removals are a get out of jail card because it’s definitely not or then it’s a very expensive one.
What strategies does Puro.earth use to support the development of new carbon removal projects, especially in regions that may not have as much access to traditional markets?
We work with project developers and suppliers that have a good idea, good plans, have made a feasibility study, and can convince us and the potential investors that their plans will eventually lead to carbon negative operations. If that is the case, then we are happy to introduce them to investors in our network. Once we understand what the project needs in terms of finance, we have approximately 70-75 investors to connect with so it’s easy for us to introduce them to each other.
How does Puro.earth go through the process of evaluating newer CDR technologies that aren’t as established as the ones that are currently on your platform?
We are being bombarded by all kinds of ideas. There’s lots of innovation going on and it’s delightful to be here in this nexus point.
We have our science team that specializes in understanding the latest science. Then eventually the working groups that are formed specialists, the researchers, and the practitioners are invited to join. We then create a document that is produced to our advisory board. The advisory board consists of independent advisers who are from academia and guarantee with their name and reputation that what they approve is of high quality.
Currently no government has established a compliance market. Do you see a future where Puro.earth would eventually work with the government when it comes to policy and carbon credits?
Definitely. People even call what we are doing right now a pre-compliance market, rather than a voluntary market. We are constantly in contact with the European Union, the UK government, and US officials. It’s definitely on our agenda to make sure that what we are developing on the voluntary side will then be deployed on a massive scale on the compliance side.
How does Puro.earth foster engagement between private businesses and the government to support carbon removal efforts?
It’s a hugely complex topic of course and requires a lot of time and effort on our side. Puro.earth is a participant in several different advocacy groups such as the Carbon Business Council. We work together with many other organizations that are representing the different aspects of carbon removal markets towards the regulators. My colleague, Marianne, spent a week in Brussels talking with the EU officials and we’ve recently met with Finnish regulators.
This summer Puro.earth partnered with Xpansiv. What does the partnership entail and what we can expect from the collaboration?
Xpansiv is the owner of CBL markets and they are, to our knowledge, the largest carbon exchange in the world in terms of volume. They are one of 35 channel partners that we have. All of those facilitate the trading of CORCs towards their own clients. Of course, Xpansiv being as big as they are and the other credits. Makes it all the more interesting for our suppliers as a distribution channel towards buyers . I hope that their scope will cover more technical cover removals in the future. My understanding is that Puro’s CORCs are the first of this type to be sold in their system. Hopefully their customers will start to buy those as well.
Puro.earth had an online marketplace that closed last year. Did you have those 35 partners while you still had the online marketplace or were they newer partnerships because you closed your own online marketplace?
We had some already before that, but definitely stepping away from that position in the value chain has accelerated the influx of new sales partnerships.
Puro Connect API was recently launched. Could you give a breakdown on what it entails?
It’s a machine-to-machine interface for the marketplaces and exchanges to conduct trades or once there’s a trade between their buyer and the seller, they can move the CORCs from one account to another by using that API.
"They should start investing in carbon removal so that they will have something to buy when they actually need to reach carbon emissions at net zero. "
What closing thoughts do you have on the work being done at Puro.earth?
We need to get the train going now. We’ve got the tracks, we’ve built the train, we’ve got the carriages in the train. The carriages are the methodologies and now we need to put more projects into those methodologies. We need to start growing them bigger and we need to get the train moving. With that I mean that corporations should put their money where their mouth is.
They should start investing in carbon removal so that they will have something to buy when they actually need to reach carbon emissions at net zero. Like a train, it takes a little time and effort to get something moving and we need to build a huge capacity. It is difficult for us to comprehend what it takes to build a megatonne worth of carbon removal capacity, not to mention a gigatonne or five gigatonnes. Those are easy to say, but difficult to realize. Because it’s such a great challenge and we have so little time, we just need to get started now.
