Jim Giles

1 week ago | trellis.net | Jim Giles

Microsoft has signed a deal for 3.7 million carbon removal credits over a 12-year periodProject developer CO280 will generate the credits by capturing emissions from pulp and paper millsMany U.S. mills are situated close to suitable geologic storage reservoirsCould the pulp and paper industry be transformed into an engine for carbon removal?

2 weeks ago | trellis.net | Jim Giles

Norfolk Southern is allowing freight customers to buy Environmental Attribute Certificates, which they can use to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Similar schemes already exist in aviation and maritime shipping. The company has a goal of having lower-carbon fuels account for 7 percent of its fuel mix by 2027 and 20 percent by 2034. A major U.S. railroad is joining the aviation and maritime shipping industries in launching a book-and-claim scheme to help customers reduce freight emissions.

3 weeks ago | trellis.net | Jim Giles

Advocates for carbon removal have long warned of a problem: Because a handful of buyers are responsible for the large majority of purchases, the supply side of the market is not growing fast enough to provide the gigatons of removals the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says will be needed by mid-century. But now comes tentative evidence that major Japanese companies may help fill that gap.

3 weeks ago | trellis.net | Jim Giles

The tech giant Meta, owner of Facebook and WhatsApp, has purchased 676,000 carbon credits as part of a project that will transform the management of 68,000 acres of previously commercial forest on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula. The deal is the first time EFM, the forest investment company that acquired the land, has used credit sales to help fund a forest purchase. It also represents a significant uptick in credit use by Meta, which will receive the credits over a 10-year period.

4 weeks ago | trellis.net | Jim Giles

In just a few years, carbon removal has gone from a niche interest to an activity that many big companies feel compelled to invest in. It’s easy to see why. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that gigatons of removals will be needed to contain global warming. And key standard-setters, including the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), have focused on removals above other types of carbon credits. Yet purchasing removals is a daunting task.