Running Tide releases framework for ocean carbon removal projects

Project developer Running Tide on April 19 published an initial framework protocol for ocean carbon removal to help set a high standard for these categories of project and improve their integrity, as voluntary carbon markets come under intense scrutiny.

In the document, the US-based company lays out a structure for the quantification and measurement of the impacts of such projects, and outlines the principles that should be followed.

"The intention of this protocol is to provide maximum transparency into the system that combines these carbon removal pathways, the approach to accurately quantifying the carbon that is removed through these pathways, and the foundational science that informs the use of these pathways to transfer carbon from the fast to the slow cycle," the document said.

Carbon removal refers to climate mitigation strategies that remove CO2 emissions from the atmosphere, as opposed to strategies to avoid such emissions.

These encompass a wide array of approaches, including direct air capture coupled with durable storage, soil carbon sequestration, biomass carbon removal and storage, enhanced mineralization, ocean-based CDR, and afforestation/reforestation.

Ocean carbon removal approaches aim to enhance or accelerate natural biological or chemical processes that sequester carbon in the ocean, according to the World Resource Institute.

Watch: What is the Voluntary Carbon Market?

Crisis of trust

Running Tide acknowledged that voluntary carbon markets were currently in a "crisis of trust", and that the document was needed due to the lack of established governance structures in carbon removal projects.

The protocol describes in detail the combined chemical and biological interventions of three naturally occurring carbon removal pathways: terrestrial biomass growth and sinking, ocean biomass growth and sinking, and ocean alkalinity enhancement.

"This reinforces the importance of building social license and confidence in new carbon removal solutions, such as those conducted in the ocean, against the backdrop of an emerging -- but not yet mature -- industry.

Questions over the efficacy of some carbon offsets and projects have led to a steady fall in liquidity and confidence in 2023.

Ocean-based carbon removal is still a very nascent sector, but interest from corporates is starting to rise.

Oceans are considered to be the world's largest carbon sinks and key to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions.

The ocean generates 50% of the world's oxygen, absorbs 25% of all CO2 emissions and captures 90% of the excess heat generated by these emissions, according to the UN.

In March, technology provider Microsoft signed a two-year deal with Running Tide to help remove the equivalent of 12,000 mtCO2e through ocean-based carbon removal technologies.

"Through natural processes like photosynthesis and ocean alkalinity enhancement, Running Tide fixes carbon from the fast carbon cycle, and then utilizes low energy mass transfer techniques (ships, gravity, and ocean currents), to sink the carbon in the deep ocean, moving it into safe, long-term storage in the slow carbon cycle," Running Tide says on its website.

Such projects are often categorized as nature-based, exploiting the carbon-absorbing properties of plants or oceans, or technology-based, using tools like direct air capture to vacuum CO2 from the atmosphere.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assesses the price of carbon credits generated from technology-based carbon credits like direct air capture projects or other carbon capture and sequestration operations.

The price of credits from technology-based carbon removal projects has consistently traded at a significant premium to other types of removal credits. Platts assessed tech-based carbon capture credits for 2023 at $146/mtCO2e on April 19.

That compared with $13.80/mtCO2e for standard carbon removal credits for 2023, according to Platts assessments.

This premium on tech-based credits reflects a much higher cost of implementing projects, but also a perception of lower risks linked to issues such as environmental integrity, additionality and permanence.