Connecting policies, projects, and standards
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At CRSI, we have developed an ecosystem of tools to organize information on policies, quantification, and sectoral integrations of carbon removal.
We would be delighted to hear your ideas or feedback at database@carbonremovalstandards.org
Today, carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is referred to as an industry unto itself. But to fully scale, CDR must be integrated throughout society. This creates a lot of surface area: different CDR pathways, policies, jurisdictions, industries, and integrations, all of which must be appropriately measured to ensure real climate impact.
At CRSI, we have been building tools to organize this information and share it with policymakers, regulators, NGOs, academics, communities, and industry stakeholders. These tools help us to identify gaps in research, commercial activity, and policy development, and make that information visible to the CDR ecosystem. This blog walks through our different tools, and details our past, current, and future work with them.
Where we’ve been: building infrastructure to organize information
Since CRSI launched last August, we’ve built a series of tools to organize information on CDR quantification, policies, and integrations. Here’s a breakdown of what each does, and why.
Sectoral Integrations Map (New)
When we say CDR must be integrated into every aspect of society, this tool captures what that will look like. It’s a map of (our current best understanding of) the ways CDR fits into different sectors, and includes the associated commercial, research, and policy activity for each integration.
Projects Database (beta version)
The Projects Database is a complement to the Sectoral Integrations Map. It is an illustrative (but not exhaustive) list of commercial CDR activity embedded inside existing large-scale industries.
Policy Dashboard
The Policy Dashboard reflects our ever-growing list of governments supporting CDR. We’re documenting the policies that incentivize CDR directly, and increasingly, we’re focusing on policies that could include CDR while still achieving their core goals.
Policy Database
The Policy Database contains the data that underpins the Policy Dashboard. Our tools in Airtable are all linked on the back end, so the list of CDR pathways (and all other shared variables) are the same across Databases. Airtable views also allow you to quickly filter and export data as needed.
Reservoir Flux Framework
As far as we are concerned, all roads lead back to scientifically sound, fit-for-purpose quantification of CDR. We track how removals are quantified across many durable CDR pathways using our Reservoir Flux Framework. This framework outlines the carbon species and reservoir changes from start to finish for different removal technologies.
Quantification Resources Database
The Quantification Resources Database (QRD) operationalizes the Reservoir Flux Framework, mapping standards, protocols, and academic papers to the reservoirs and fluxes they quantify. We use the QRD for quantification methodology intercomparison, within and across different CDR pathways.
Where we are today: deep diving on specific gaps
Building and maintaining these tools is an ongoing process. But already, the information we’ve compiled is helping us find opportunities to embed CDR across industries, match these opportunities to specific policies and jurisdictions, and measure CDR in ways compatible with existing practices and infrastructure. Here are three examples we’re currently working on.
Coastal Resilience
Earlier this month, CRSI welcomed Dr. Gabby Kitch as a project partner as she embarks on building a community-driven roadmap to embed carbon removal into US coastal resilience infrastructure. (Dr. Kitch is able to work with CRSI thanks to funding from the Navigation Fund.)
Enhanced Weathering
With partners from Yale, Georgia Tech, Texas A&M, Newcastle, and UPenn, we are researching the technical and policy implications of aggregated monitoring of enhanced weathering. Our technical analysis, led by Dr. Tim Jesper Suhrhoff, examines how CDR can be estimated for enhanced weathering at large scales, rather than individual deployment sites.
Our policy work, led by CRSI Director of Programs Dr. Lucia Simonelli, explores what the policy implications are of aggregated monitoring for enhanced weathering in different jurisdictions.
Inventories and Durable Sinks
We are taking a broad look at how current greenhouse gas inventories account for durable carbon sinks, in order to identify key gaps for CDR quantification. We’re starting with wastewater alkalinity enhancement as a case study for integration of aqueous bicarbonate storage in accounting schemes.
Where we’re going
The tools shared earlier in this blog are the root of our past, present, and future work. In the months ahead, we aim to strengthen this foundation by bringing these tools together into a one-stop policy and quantification dashboard. This process is already well underway. For example, the Projects Dashboard includes information on standards and enabling policies relevant to a specific CDR project. Now, we want to create an interactive interface where users can easily start at projects, policies, or protocols and trace through the whole web of interconnected materials.
We’re excited to be taking on this effort—and we want to build a tool that’s as beneficial as possible for the CDR ecosystem at large. If you have expertise in interactive tools, reach out to database@carbonremovalstandards.org. We would love to talk to you.
