Onsets, not offsets
Explaining natural carbon removal credits
Guest Blogger, Laura Payne, from the Climate Cleanup Foundation in Amsterdam, explains how to invest in natural carbon removal
The latest IPCC report offers a stark warning. The climate clock is ticking. We have to remove the excess of 1500 gigatons of CO2 in the atmosphere as fast as we can. 1500 gigatons are about the same amount that’s already stored in living nature right now. So, if we double nature, we solve multiple crises: we reverse climate change, increase biodiversity, improve water cycles, and create a green beautiful planet.
Onsets, not offsets
Here at the Climate Cleanup Foundation in Amsterdam, we’re on a mission to promote natural carbon removal credits — onsets, not offsets. Onsets are carbon removal credits that are regenerative, reputation-proof, nature-based, high quality, and actually work to reverse climate change.
With Onsets, you can reverse climate change yourself by paying carbon removal entrepreneurs to store carbon while regenerating nature. One credit represents a tonne (1000 kg) of CO2 safely stored away in nature. Our credits are direct-retire only, and thus can not be subject to speculation.
Measuring progress
How do we measure the amount of CO2 stored by nature entrepreneurs? Onsets are ONCRA certified. ONCRA stands for Open Natural Carbon Removal Accounting. All data is open source, ensuring 100% transparency. What you see is what you get, so we do not use complicated calculations which might turn out to be useless later. The carbon is scientifically measured, from beginning to end.
Onsetting in action
So what do these onsets look like? Well, check out Scave with their project Arvoterra, in Portugal, where with the help of 40.000+ trees, 188 Ha of abandoned land in the village of Cidadelhe will be afforested, with about 25% becoming agroforests. Our science-based, optimised regeneration strategies build long-term carbon storage and climate-resilience.
Or Greensand a company which is named after olivine: a common, greenish mineral found in rock whose surface reacts with carbon dioxide and water to form new, stable compounds. Collecting, pulverising, and exposing this “green sand” to the elements stores carbon for millennia to come, and happens to produce beneficial nutrients for plants. Olivine dust can be put in soils, beaches, playgrounds, or anywhere you can think of. We can store Earth’s carbon quickly and simply, while helping plant life.
Also BambooLogic is a company striving to fight climate change with bamboo. At their site in Alcoutim, Portugal, they work to transform the landscape; Bamboo’s quick-growing properties as a grass species sap large amounts of CO2 from the air. However, bamboo roots also revitalize soil by fixing nutrients and water. A bamboo plant can also grow indefinitely without replanting, even after harvesting for renewable goods.
Let’s build a Regenerative Society — Together with fellow entrepreneurs, policymakers, scientists and investors!
Join us at our Double Nature Summit, which will take place on 22 to 25 May 2023. Our leading question is: How to regeneratively double nature to re-store 1500 gigatons of carbon?
The event will focus on storing carbon in rocks, ocean, land and constructions with the idea to bring the nature based solutions entrepreneurs together with scientists, investors and corporations interested in Nature Based Solutions.
Together we are building the regenerative economy as a partnership with nature to remove carbon from the atmosphere while satisfying human needs and living within planetary boundaries.
Lets start now and innovate.
Join us in our quest to remove 1500GT CO2 from the atmosphere.
