The dirt on soil carbon credits

08/25/22 • 43 min

2 Listeners

Soil is a massive carbon sink that’s stored away emissions for centuries. But years of destructive farming practices have released much of this carbon. Could incentivizing farmers help restore—and expand—soil’s carbon-carrying capacity?

In theory, yes. But the market for soil carbon credits—literally paying farmers to improve their practices—needs serious reform.

In this episode, Shayle talks with Freya Chay, program manager for carbon removal at CarbonPlan. The fundamental problem is that the existing carbon credits don’t do what they say they will do: permanently lock away additional carbon. Freya and Shayle survey the big challenges of the market and explore potential fixes, covering questions like:

How do we measure—using models, samplings and satellites—the amount of carbon in a plot of soil?
What tools do we have to make sure the carbon will stay in the ground, such as buffer pools and ton-year accounting?
The additionality question: Without the credit, would the carbon have been captured anyway? Or would it have remained locked away anyway?
What role could third-party grading systems play in differentiating high-quality credits from low-quality ones?

Resources:

CarbonPlan: A buyer’s guide to soil carbon offsets
CarbonPlan: Unpacking ton-year accounting
Canary Media: Carbon storage gets dirty: The movement to sequester CO2 in soils
Sylvera: Carbon Credit Ratings: Frameworks & Processes White Paper

Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

Catalyst is supported by Antenna Group. For 25 years, Antenna has partnered with leading clean-economy innovators to build their brands and accelerate business growth. If you're a startup, investor, enterprise, or innovation ecosystem that's creating positive change, Antenna is ready to power your impact. Visit antennagroup.com to learn more.

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In theory, yes. But the market for soil carbon credits—literally paying farmers to improve their practices—needs serious reform.

How do we measure—using models, samplings and satellites—the amount of carbon in a plot of soil?
What tools do we have to make sure the carbon will stay in the ground, such as buffer pools and ton-year accounting?
The additionality question: Without the credit, would the carbon have been captured anyway? Or would it have remained locked away anyway?
What role could third-party grading systems play in differentiating high-quality credits from low-quality ones?

Resources:

CarbonPlan: A buyer’s guide to soil carbon offsets
CarbonPlan: Unpacking ton-year accounting
Canary Media: Carbon storage gets dirty: The movement to sequester CO2 in soils
Sylvera: Carbon Credit Ratings: Frameworks & Processes White Paper

Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

Previous Episode

Booking your first zero-emissions flight

In aviation, there’s a crowd of low-carbon technologies vying for a slice of the market. On one hand, the long-haul portion of the market will likely rely on sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) which still emit greenhouse gasses but could be offset to net-zero. On the other hand, there’s a big share of air traffic that could go completely zero-emissions with the help of batteries and hydrogen.

So how soon could you book a ticket on a zero-emissions flight? And what routes are possible?

In this episode, Shayle talks with Jayant Mukhopadhaya, a researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT). Jayant recently authored two reports on electric aircraft and hydrogen aircraft. Shayle and Jayant dig in on some tough questions:

Can electric aircraft take incremental steps into the market given the limitations of current battery energy densities? Or do they need a technology breakthrough?
How do hydrogen fuel cell, compressed hydrogen combustion, and liquid hydrogen combustion compare?
How do airports need to prepare for hydrogen fueling? Hint: Terminal-sized upgrades.

Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.

Resources:

Canary Media: Can battery-powered airplanes decarbonize air travel?
Canary Media: How do we clean up air travel? Fuel from fast-food grease is just the start
Bloomberg (video): Hydrogen May Be the Jet Fuel of the Future
Catalyst: A bumpy ride toward decarbonizing aviation

Next Episode

Could geothermal become a major zero-emissions player?

Drill down far enough anywhere in the world and you reach temperatures hot enough to generate firm, reliable zero-emission electricity. That’s the hope for new geothermal technologies that could scale the industry beyond well-known geothermal hot spots like Iceland.

But first the industry needs to overcome major challenges in financing and technology. It has also to deal with the public opinion around the oil and gas industry, which may be an essential partner in scaling geothermal because of its overlapping expertise in drilling and underground exploration.

In this episode, guest host Lara Pierpoint talks with Jamie Beard, executive director of Project Innerspace, a non-profit focused on expanding the use of geothermal energy globally.

Current geothermal technology relies on naturally occurring underground hot spots, common in places like Iceland and the western U.S.. But an approach called enhanced geothermal systems or “hot, dry rock,” would make geothermal available around the world, potentially adding hundreds of gigawatts to current geothermal capacity.

Lara and Jamie discuss major questions facing the geothermal industry, like:

How and where to drill for consistent hot temperatures?
How long before a well is depleted of heat-carrying capacity?
What sort of surveying and information do funders need to deal with exploration risks?
How can the industry take advantage of the co-benefits of geothermal drilling, such as lithium extraction, carbon sequestration and waste heat?
What working fluids, like water or critical CO2, are appropriate for a given project?
How viable are geothermal-source heat pumps and how do they compare to air-source heat pumps?
What are the potential environmental impacts of geothermal?
What role should the oil and gas industry play in scaling this zero-emission technology?

Resources:

Canary Media: Advanced geothermal heats up with $138M round for startup Fervo Energy
Department of Energy: DOE Launches New Energy Earthshot to Slash the Cost of Geothermal Power

Catalyst is a co-production of Post Script Media and Canary Media.