S'pore's Climate Impact X partners Finnish carbon removal marketplace to offer more offset options

CIX's partner, Puro.earth, focuses on technologies that can remove carbon and store it for at least 50 years. PHOTO: REUTERS

SINGAPORE - Singapore's Climate Impact X (CIX) and Puro.earth of Finland on Monday (June 6) announced a partnership that aims to increase the availability of nature- and technology-based carbon removal credits.

The idea is to give buyers a wider choice of offsets to cut their emissions and to spur investment in projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere and lock it away.

CIX is a marketplace and exchange for nature-based carbon credits, while Puro.earth is a marketplace, standard setter and registry for carbon removal credits focused on emerging carbon removal technologies. These include carbonated building materials and geologically stored carbon, which involves the injection of carbon dioxide (CO2) into deep geological formations.

A carbon credit represents a tonne of reduced or avoided CO2 emissions from a verified project and is bought by companies to help them meet their emission reduction goals.

Nature-based solutions protect, restore and grow natural ecosystems such as forests, mangroves and coastal habitats. These projects soak up CO2, the main greenhouse gas, and store it in tree trunks, roots and soils.

Such projects also bring economic and cultural benefits to local communities and improve local biodiversity.

In March, CIX launched a digital platform that allows businesses to buy and sell carbon credits from projects that are independently verified. Through the platform, the firms can discover, compare and buy carbon credits from various projects around the world.

The marketplace at present features carbon credits from nature-based solutions, but CIX is looking to offer a broader range of technologies, allowing customers to create a diversified carbon credit portfolio.

"In a complex and fast-evolving carbon market, businesses seek products that are designed to be net-zero aligned and that can effectively address tomorrow's demands. An appropriate mix of nature- and tech-based solutions helps to facilitate this," said CIX chief executive Mikkel Larsen.

CIX was jointly established last year by DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange, Standard Chartered and Temasek.

Puro.earth offers carbon removal certificates verified by an independent third party. It says it focuses on technologies that can remove carbon on an industrial scale and store it for at least 50 years.

It has helped in the development of carbon removal methodologies, including biochar, which is a solid form of carbon that can remain in the soil for centuries.

It is produced by heating biomass or biowaste through a process called pyrolysis, which does not use oxygen. Carbon-rich biochar can be used to improve soil health.

Puro.earth's website lists a variety of verified projects, most of them producing biochar, in Europe, the United States and Australia. Most are in the €100 (S$147) to €200 range per tonne of CO2 removed.

"This marks the very first step of our collaboration with Puro.earth," CIX said in a statement to The Straits Times.

"As part of this initial phase, we will work together to design and curate a single product portfolio that blends quality nature- and tech-based carbon removal credits.

"This single solution aims to strike a balance between affordability and scalability, while aligning with the science to ensure that our speed of transition keeps us on track to meet our Paris Agreement targets," CIX said, referring to the 2015 United Nations climate agreement.

There is no immediate plan to cross-list credits on each other's platforms. "However, the nature of our collaboration remains open and will be shaped by market and customer demands," CIX said.

"We believe that demand for quality carbon-removals will grow significantly in the years to come, especially among businesses that want to move faster to achieve net zero and can afford it."

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.