Isometric’s mission is to rebuild trust in carbon markets so the carbon removal industry can scale responsibly and fast.
Complete transparency is key to rebuilding trust.
This happens today via our public protocols and the Isometric Registry where anyone can see the data and calculations that go into every Isometric credit.
This year, we’re embodying transparency as an organization more fully.
We’re going to open source our foundations—how we operationalize science, how we work with partners and how we’re building our company.
The role of a carbon registry has irrevocably changed. We’ve learned a lot over the past four years at Isometric. But these lessons aren’t yet apparent to the wider CDR ecosystem. So we’re sharing them in an effort to deepen our collective understanding and ensure this market can rapidly reach gigatonne scale.
The first topic in this series is to transparently share the thinking behind the Isometric Credit Principles.
These four Credit Principles govern how we issue high quality carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credits—and are central to rebuilding trust in carbon markets.
Scientific rigor
Isometric develops the most rigorous scientific protocols—underpinned by the Isometric Standard—to ensure that every credit on the Isometric Registry represents one tonne of carbon dioxide durably removed from the atmosphere.
Isometric’s scientific rigor is operationalized in the form of protocols. Every protocol spells out clear rules on what types of feedstocks and storage are acceptable, how to account for process emissions and guidelines for additionality and durability. In a world without universal, defined regulation in these areas, Isometric’s protocols set the bar for buyers and suppliers, helping them understand what they are getting.
Scientific research is constantly evolving. To ensure we're at the cutting edge, we recruited dozens of top climate scientists and created the Science Network—an independent community of over 350 academics and industry experts. This is not normal for a carbon registry, but it’s necessary to keep up with the cutting edge developments in carbon removal science. This also provides an unparalleled level of scrutiny to ensure that each credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide durably removed from the atmosphere.
Verifiable transparency
The lack of trust in carbon markets stems from a history of scandals and disappointment, fueled by systemic overcrediting. Millions of carbon credits of varying quality have been issued to date, with little discernible climate impact. This is partly because buyers of these credits have had no way to verify the truth behind the claims, opening themselves to charges of greenwashing.
CDR is an intangible good which means that verification is the closest thing a buyer has to a finished product. For that reason, credits need to be able to show their work. The data behind each credit must be transparent and verifiable. Including such information in unintelligible, 300 page PDFs on a website is not enough—buyers, suppliers and the public need to be able to view, understand and trust the data behind a credit.
That’s why every credit Isometric issues has a publicly available life cycle assessment behind it. The calculation data is easy to view and understand. This provides a permanent audit trail on our public Registry and offers a never-before-seen level of detail and accountability.
Aligned incentives
Perhaps most importantly, carbon markets have been rife with conflicts of interest. In the standard business model, suppliers pay for their own work to be checked and pay registries on a per-issued-credit basis. This model led to systemic overcrediting and—in the worst cases—outright fraud.
High quality credits must have aligned incentives so there is never a reason to compromise on scientific standards. When buyers pay for verification on a flat fee basis, it reduces any incentive for trade-offs between a registry’s bottom line and their scientific integrity.
At Isometric, we never take money from suppliers. Buyers pay an agreed flat fee for verifying a set amount of removal, regardless of how many credits they ultimately receive. This incentive alignment ensures we only issue credits for high quality, durable carbon dioxide removal.
Isometric cannot make more money by issuing more credits—by design.
Rapid verification
For carbon markets to function effectively, verification and credit issuance processes must be a regular, ongoing exercise.
Annual credit issuance—which is how traditional registries have operated since this market’s inception—is no longer good enough. Rapid verification and monthly credit issuance allows CDR suppliers to realize revenue quickly and grow their operations effectively.
We recently launched the Certify platform which enables suppliers to issue credits monthly.
This is a category-defining reimagination of the role of a carbon registry.
Previously carbon registries were perceived to be problematic bodies who created a set of hurdles for suppliers to jump over—a necessary evil on the path to credits. Verification was treated as a box-ticking exercise whose thoroughness was defined not by science but by the amount of time required to interpret confusing and lengthy appendices.
It’s possible to combine science and technology to allow suppliers to move faster without compromising on quality. We hope others will come around to this new way of thinking.
What’s next
Every high quality credit should have these principles embedded in them—whether issued by Isometric or not.
When these become the default principles for the industry, we’ll be ready for gigatonne scale.
