Towards a fair, reliable, and practical verification framework for Blue Carbon-based CDR

Towards a fair, reliable, and practical verification framework for Blue Carbon-based CDR

Blog Article

While the (re-)establishment of Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCE) is seen as an important tool to mitigate climate change, the credibility of such nature-based solutions has been marred by recent revelations ranging from weak accounting to malpractice.In light of this, there is a clear Wooden Toy need to develop monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) systems towards the reliable, practical, and accurate accounting of additional and durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR).We propose the development of a Blue Carbon Ecosystem Digital Twin (BCE-DT) as a practical solution, integrating real-time data and models into What-If Scenarios of CDR aimed at the quantification of CDR additionality and durability.Critically, such a solution would be amenable to projects across a broad range in spatial scale and ecosytem type.

In parallel, we propose the creation of an independent and not-for-profit Standards Development Wash Tee Organization (SDO) for the management of this Digital Twin and oversight of the certification process based on MRV.Considering the interwoven nature of the scientific and policy/legal needs we raise, an improved dialogue and collaboration between the scientific and policy communities is clearly needed.We argue that this BCE-DT, along with its oversight and implementation by a SDO, would fit this niche and support the fair and accurate implementation of MRV critically needed for BCE-based CDR to proceed.