Dispatches from ERW25

Last week, CRSI attended ERW25 at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. This action-packed, three-day conference covered a lot of ground. This blog distills four key themes covered in Antwerp and highlights how CRSI is building on each of them. 

Theme 1: The future of MRV is models

Isometric hosted a workshop before ERW25 officially began, focused on how measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) will work as enhanced weathering (EW) scales. Currently, verified EW carbon credits rely heavily on in-field sampling to verify weathering and removal rates, with limited use of models. But as deployments scale, models will provide a powerful lever to bring down the time and labor costs of MRV. There was strong agreement that models must be empirically calibrated and validated, but differences of opinion on the good and bad scenarios for model-based crediting, including issues around intellectual property. 

At CRSI, we monitor the use of models in carbon removal  protocols in our Quantification Resources Database (QRD). The QRD is an open-access database, designed to help stakeholders from across the carbon removal ecosystem gain insights into the state of MRV. We can use the QRD to ask detailed questions like, what models do EW protocols use to assess transport of dissolved inorganic carbon from soil porewater to streams and rivers? (For more information on how we breakdown the steps in carbon removal via EW on ag lands, check out our Flux Framework.) 

Theme 2: Aggregated monitoring is gaining momentum

Traditionally, EW is monitored at the individual field level. Can we do better by pooling data across many fields? Dr. Tim Jesper Suhrhoff, a senior science advisor to CRSI, discussed aggregated monitoring—in both solid and aqueous phase measurements—in a panel at the Isometric workshop and in a talk at the conference. Early results presented by Dr. Suhrhoff indicate aggregation may decrease the likelihood of overestimating the amount of carbon removed by EW. This research comes at a great time: EW suppliers are deploying at increasingly large scales as shared data infrastructure (like the Cascade Data Quarry) develops. Our team is excited to continue building on our workshop from December 2024 at AGU and working with various partners on all things aggregated monitoring. In the coming months, CRSI will co-publish a technical framework on aggregated monitoring and a policy paper with stakeholder engagement guidance.

Theme 3: EW needs policy to reach scale

The policy landscape for EW is growing rapidly. ERW25 featured a talk by Dr. Fabien Ramos on the potential inclusion of EW in the European Union's Carbon Removals and Carbon Farming (CRCF) certification framework. The CRCF is the first government-designed voluntary certification program for the carbon removal industry to explicitly include “permanent” removals, and will have sweeping implications both within and beyond the EU. We are tracking developments in the CRCF and carbon removal  policies globally in our Policy Dashboard. 

Theme 4: MRV will vary by policy type

To scale EW, we need to connect the right policy support mechanisms with the right MRV and quantification frameworks. I presented a poster at ERW25 on one particular policy-MRV nexus: soil pH management. There is a suite of pH management policies implemented around the world, many of which focus on incentivizing the deployment of agricultural limestone (aglime). What if silicate feedstocks for EW were included in these policies? 

We looked at the structure of liming subsidies around the world to understand how EW would fit into them. Some, like the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, are transport subsidies for aglime. Others, like Ireland, are payments for spreading the aglime. Some of these policies require a recent analysis of soil pH on eligible fields, while others do not. There’s a lot of variance here, which we are tracking in our Policy Dashboard. We look forward to exploring how EW could be integrated into these different liming policies in the coming months. 

It was a great week connecting with partners from across the EW ecosystem. If you are interested in staying up-to-date about the work we’ll be doing post-conference, subscribe to our mailing list or reach out to info@carbonremovalstandards.org.