Strengthening MRV standards for greenhouse gas removals to improve climate change governance

MERCERL

In addition to the significant structural challenge of deploying GGR at the requisite scale to reach the 1.5°C target, segments of the population are ambivalent about the technology and grapple with the role technological GGR should play in a decarbonisation strategy (Cox et al., 2020). [...] Why are MRV frameworks needed? The credibility of emission reduction claims is integral to the functioning of the GGR sector and has implications for wider societal trust in the need to utilise GGR techniques to reduce the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere. [...] The increased use of principles (such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s core carbon principles) and better information architecture – such as credit ratings and better integration of data and disclosures pertaining to issuance, credit price, vintage and retirement date – have the potential to bolster trust in GGR project developers and certain classes of GGR (Smith et al.,. [...] Even if the expectations for monitoring accuracy need to be dampened, and the policy frames adapted accordingly (such as not allowing the integration of GGR into conventional carbon markets or having separate targets for GGR and mitigation), ensuring that emissions are accurately measured, reported to regulators, and verified will remain critical to the healthy functioning of the sector and wider. [...] Subsurface CO₂ storage11 The critical challenge for the MRV of CO₂ injection is the need to accurately quantify the CO₂ stored in a reservoir and the stability of the CO₂ plume over time.