CTC #85 - Clarity for carbon markets

POLICY

US sets carbon market principles

The Biden administration is looking to add some clarity to the voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) with new “high-integrity” principles.

What happened: The US announced high-level guiding principles for the voluntary carbon markets. The principles aren’t legally binding but they send a strong signal to the market on what good credits look like. The EU introduced its own framework for VCMs earlier this year.

Why it matters: Carbon markets enable corporations to direct capital into emissions-reducing or -removing projects. The principles aim to guide this investment to projects that have credible climate impacts.

VCMs are also a $2B market that’s expected to grow to $10-40B by 2030. Clarity from government can help make investors more confident, particularly in a market that’s seen its fair share of low-quality projects.

What about Canada? So far, Canada has mostly focused on the compliance market and created protocols for different types of credits (e.g. reducing landfill methane and forest management). In one sense, we’re ahead of the US in having a price on carbon. But we’re not keeping pace on the voluntary side of the market.

Canada could play a more active role as VCMs expand, both on the market front and in developing projects that take advantage of ample forests, agricultural land and geologic storage for carbon.

What’s next: The US is hoping to spark a flight to quality in the voluntary market, with clear expectations for sellers and buyers on what good looks like.

CLIMATE CAPITAL

🌊 veritree received $5M from Canada’s Ocean Supercluster to develop methodologies for evaluating kelp’s impact on carbon fixation, biodiversity, and ocean health.

🚢 The Supercluster also announced $2.2M for OceanSync to develop a resilient cargo distribution network that can consider emissions in route choice, and a $7M project led by Photon Marine Canada to establish a Canadian electric boat manufacturing supply chain.

🏡 Assembly Corp and ZS2 Technologies will receive funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to develop climate-smart solutions that can increase housing supply. Assembly will use the funding to refine their prefabricated components and manufacturing process, while ZS2 will continue to bring their low-carbon building panels to market.

♻️ RFINE received over $220K from Natural Products Canada to pilot its technology that enables coffee shops to upcycle their used coffee grounds into valuable, food-grade ingredients. RFINE’s solution diverts waste from landfill, reducing costs and methane emissions.

🐋 Whale Seeker secured $855K from the Canada Nature Fund for Aquatic Species at Risk to use drones for near-real time detection and monitoring of marine mammals.

MILESTONES & PRODUCT

🏅 The founders of erthos and Ionomr Innovations received Governor General’s Innovation Awards for their work pioneering biomaterials and clean energy materials respectively.

🔋 Nano One will produce modular, pre-fabricated versions of their One Pot cathode production process to reduce production risk and speed up project deployment.

🏢 BrainBox AI acquired the Automation division of Turntide Technologies, an engineering services and manufacturing company. The acquisition includes existing staff and a portfolio of connected buildings.

⚡️ SWTCH Energy will partner with virtual power plant platform Leap to integrate SWTCH’s network of chargers at multi-unit buildings, tapping into energy stored in vehicles as a paid, flexible resource for the grid.

👁️ Metaspectral will partner with edge computing company Armada to bring hyperspectral monitoring to remote locations like oil and gas monitoring and mining.

🧱 Low-carbon concrete company CarbonCure expands into the Middle East, deploying their carbon utilization systems at concrete plants in the United Arab Emirates.

🚐 Blaise Transit will roll out its on-demand transit platform across New Brunswick with local transit provider Urban/Rural Rides. On-demand transit can make public transit viable in under-served and rural locations.

🔋 Metasphere is developing a carbon credit protocol for grid scale battery optimization, enabling battery operators to generate credits for carbon reductions that come from optimized operations.

NEWS

E-bikes - underrated climate solution?

Offering incentives to buy an e-bike can have a bigger climate impact than EV rebates, driving a bigger shift in car use and emissions.

What happened: A study from UBC found that offering residents in Victoria an incentive to buy e-bikes cut their car use by about 49 km per week. The incentives ran between $350 to $1,600 depending on income level, with an e-bike costing between $1,500-$2,000. 

Why it matters: For one, changing how people move around is no small feat. And while the adoption of electric vehicles gets a lot of attention, the climate impact of smaller vehicles is often overlooked. Globally, the adoption of two- and three-wheeled electric vehicles displaced 1 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, four times that of electric cars.

Researchers in the US found that if e-bike trips could capture just 11% of trips, transport emissions would fall by about 7%. 

What’s the context: Getting around depends a lot on the local environment, and the study community has solid bike infrastructure and milder winters than other parts of Canada. But e-bikes have a lot of advantages: lower upfront costs, less energy demand, cheaper to fuel, and the health benefits of more active transportation.

The bottom line: While findings from the B.C. study can’t be extrapolated to every community in Canada, they suggest an under-leveraged tool for climate action. 80% of Canadians live in urban areas and combining e-bikes with other models like public transit (to overcome the last mile gap in many transit systems) and car-sharing for longer trips could make for a radically transformed transport system.

IN THE NEWS

🧮 Bad math: The Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) accidentally included industrial carbon pricing when it ran the cost of Canada’s consumer carbon price (AKA carbon tax). The agencies numbers have been used to rally opposition to carbon pricing. Updated numbers won’t be out until the fall, though the PBO expects a similar net result.

💧Hydrogen hub: Simon Fraser University will host a new Clean Hydrogen Hub backed by $11M from industry and government. The Hub includes on-site hydrogen production and test facilities for emerging tech. Scaling up its hydrogen sector is an important part of B.C.’s plans to hit net-zero by 2050.

⛏️ Critical mineral alliance: Kingston and Sudbury announced a Critical Minerals Alliance between the two cities. The agreement will leverage the respective strengths of each city, connecting mines, refineries, battery technology stratups and mineral processing plants to accelerate the battery supply chain in the province.

⚡️Public power: Hydro-Québec announced it will act as the primary contractor for large-scale wind power projects, citing the need to deploy wind and solar 5x faster. Relying on small-scale projects from the private sector and acting solely as a power buyer won’t be enough. The new strategy is targeting 10,000 MW of new wind power by 2035.

BIG PICTURE

Meet the Lebanese-Canadian building a profitable path to fusion energy

Climate scientist and IPCC contributor Claudia Sheinbaum will be Mexico’s first woman president

The U.S. approved the first methane-reducing feed additive for dairy cattle

Voluntary carbon markets shrank by more than 60% last year over concerns about credit quality 

Skyscrapers could soon become giant batteries 

Climeworks shares the not-so-perfect reality of deploying direct air capture in the field

COMMUNITY

🗓️ GreenTech 2024: Hosted by Green Marine, this conference showcases green maritime technologies and innovation in sustainable maritime transportation. June 5-7th, Halifax.

🗓️ Global Energy Show Canada: Join energy professionals across all energy systems to discuss the key challenges facing the energy industry and dive into technical showcases. June 11-13th, Calgary.

🗓️ 2024 Quebec Climate Solutions Festival: The festival brings together hundreds of innovators, investors, and renowned speakers and will award over $850K to Quebec innovators. June 17-18th, Montreal.

💡 Call for Innovation: Wildfire Tech: This project is seeking innovations focused on wildfire prevention, mitigation and adaptation in B.C. Apply by August 7th.

💡 Technology Pilot Zone Project for Urban Mobility: The Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network and City of Toronto will provide up to $100K to test technologies that address urban mobility challenges.

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