Accelerating Carbon Abatement

The new ISO net-zero standard is seen as a positive step for the carbon dioxide removal industry because it lets companies reach net zero using CDR at whatever level a technical and economic feasibility assessment determines, rather than capping removals at a fixed "last 10%" of emissions, and it requires companies to start buying CDR within five years of setting a target, scaling up over time as part of their transition plan. This contrasts with the SBTi Corporate Net Zero Standard V2, which doesn't require companies to start purchasing CDR until 2035, after which they must ramp up from 1% of emissions across all scopes to 100% of residual emissions by their net-zero date; the article notes SBTi's rules could still change again before that deadline arrives. Both standards call for durable, high-quality removals to count toward residual emissions, defined as lasting at least 100 years under ISO and as "long-lived" (likely meaning centuries) under SBTi. The piece argues ISO is the first major corporate net-zero standard to treat CDR procurement as a requirement built into a company's transition from the start, rather than something to address at the end … Click below to read more