Carbon registry Isometric has become the first to receive a formal endorsement from the three most prominent verification bodies in the carbon market space.
Following accreditations from ICROA in March and a conditional approval from CORSIA earlier in December, last week saw the ICVCM also grant its approval.
With the latter Isometric will now be able to issue credits with the coveted Core Carbon Principles label that buyers see as a sign of trustworthiness.
Speaking with Carbon Herald Isometric’s Chief Commercial Officer Lukas May commented on the achievement by saying: “I think increasingly, over the last 12 months, companies are looking to the ICVCM as a really important minimum benchmark for quality. Buyers are reassured that an independent body has kicked the tires on all of our processes, on our governance and our transparency and how we work. It gives that extra layer of trust.”
The three approvals have all been received within the same year of application, confirming the organization’s focus on science is paying off after creating its Science Network with over 200 members and a rigorous approach to its protocols.
The carbon removal market’s prospects
2024 has seen Isometric create and publicize a substantial number of protocols for its credits, covering all carbon removal approaches and even expanding into more nature-based approaches like reforestation.
Discussing the prospects of the carbon removal market in the short and mid-term May says “Reforestation is probably going to remain the highest source of actual removal credits [in 2025], followed by biochar because of the level of operations that are up and running in both of those sectors.
We could start to see enhanced weathering getting close by the end of the year potentially, and I think we’re going to have the first Direct Air Capture facilities coming online at serious scale. We probably won’t see that many ocean based credits, they will still remain reasonably small next year. 2026 could become a scale up year for them.
Bio-energy with carbon capture (BECCS) is interesting. I think next year it will still be relatively small but in 2027 or 2028 when [many] facilities switch on, it will jump right up the rankings, because these are already operational facilities that just need the retrofit built and installed, and the injection pipeline up and running.”
Article 6 a gamechanger but a lot of work to be done
The broader voluntary carbon markets (VCM) have just reached an important milestone with the UN launching a market under Article 6, something May welcomes but he also quickly highlights some of its missing pieces, as well as blueprints it can take advantage of.
“Everyone knows Article 6 is happening, and we have a broad framework, which is reasonably clear. However, there is still a lot of work to be done before the first Article 6 credits really start being issued by anyone, including us.
Over the next year we want to see more clarity around how you get a reasonable level of quality and oversight in the issuance of the credits. [For this] we’re going to need a middle layer that is going to provide assurance, project management and oversight, development of protocols and everything that registries are currently doing in the VCM. And the model they can look to for that is the EU CRCF which is very clear [in this regard],” he explains.
With a clearer path for Article 6 credits and carbon removal set to become a part of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme in 2028 and even potentially the EU ETS, the Isometric registry appears to be in a very solid position to become one of the key players in the next phase of the carbon markets.
