1. What?
The CCS+ Initiative has been created to develop methodologies to credit the full suite of CCS activities through the voluntary carbon markets.
2. Why?
Tapping carbon market potential requires robust carbon accounting methodologies to be developed and approved by carbon credit standards bodies. Carbon markets can help finance important projects that would not otherwise be viable.
3. How?
A collaborative, open and transparent committee structure, dedicated to achieving efficient and effective results. A steering committee, advisory group and various work groups are tasked to produce various methodology elements in priority order.
4. What is CCS?
Carbon Capture and Storage is a process whereby CO2 is captured and stored in a way that it is not released into the atmosphere within a climate-relevant time horizon. By applying CCS to point source emissions, it is possible to mitigate the effect of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate.
5. What is CCU?
Carbon Capture and Utilization is a process in which CO2 is captured at point source or from the atmosphere and then used to produce a new product. Depending on the outcome of a life-cycle analysis, CCU solutions can have climate mitigation benefits.
6. What is CDR?
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is a process whereby CO2 is physically removed from the atmosphere and stored with the intention to be permanent, with all greenhouse gas emissions over the entire chain of removal and storage included in the life-cycle analysis and whereby the total amount of CO2 removed and stored is greater than the CO2 emitted.
7. What are carbon credits and carbon markets?
Carbon credits are measurable units of emission reductions or removals that are created for the purposes of trading and retiring. They represent real, additional and verified emission reduction / removal benefits that the owner may claim when they retire the credit. Carbon markets are the collection of buyers and sellers of carbon credits who facilitate carbon project financing to reduce and/or remove GHG emissions through the generation and use of carbon credits.
8. What is the purpose of the CCS+ Initiative?
The CCS+ Initiative aims to leverage carbon markets and to scale up global decarbonization and carbon removal efforts through enabling much needed financial incentives to make technologies economically such as carbon capture and storage viable and robust. Both the IPCC and most recently the International Energy Agency have reinforced the importance of safe carbon storage solutions in the global ‘race to zero’. Such solutions will be critical, both as a decarbonization tool and in meeting global climate targets.
9. What is the potential of CCS and CCU(S) solutions for decarbonisation efforts?
CCS and CCU(S) have the potential to contribute many millions of tonnes of CO2 emission reductions/removals per year in the fight against climate change. Over many years, this could amount to billions of tonnes of avoided or removed CO2 from the atmosphere.
10. What is the relevance and potential of safe storage solutions for negative emissions?
The permanence of the storage solution coupled with atmospheric captured carbon is key to determine the success of the CDR approach with regards to restoring the climate. The longer carbon stays out of the atmosphere, the more effective it will be in decreasing atmospheric concentrations.
11. What differentiates removals (ie negative emissions) from reductions ? Why can methodologies for the two be developed in the same framework?
Since both, reduced emissions (e.g. from fossil sources) and removed emissions (i.e. from atmospheric sources) can rely on the same storage reservoirs, the quantification methods can be the same. A robust approach to accounting, based on cradle-to-grave LCA assessments, will provide the clarity necessary to distinguish their overall climate benefits and their respective application in the voluntary carbon market.
12. What is the role of “methodologies” within the context of carbon credits?
Carbon accounting methodologies outline detailed procedures for quantifying the actual GHG benefits of a project. They guide project developers in identifying the project boundaries, establish baselines, assess additionality and calculate the GHG emissions that are reduced or removed. Methodologies ensure that similar projects calculate the GHG benefits through a similar approach. Over time, a methodology may be revised, withdrawn or put on hold if the activity is no longer relevant or considered a valid way to generate emission reductions.
13. Why is the CCS+ Initiative starting with a methodological framework for voluntary carbon markets?
Currently, methodologies for CCS and CDR solutions only exist on a very limited basis, both geographically and scope-wise. They do exist in compliance carbon markets. In response, a number of leading industry players have established the CCS+ Initiative to develop methodological concepts for the full suite of CCS activities. As many companies would otherwise be forced to work in isolation on methodologies, collaboration across the market is key to achieve the aim of the initiative and accelerate the development of a comprehensive and integrated methodological framework.
14. Why the VCS? Will the methodological framework be exclusive to the VCS?
The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) is the world’s leading carbon crediting platform, accounting for two-thirds of all voluntary carbon market transaction volume and playing a growing role within emerging compliance markets. The VCS has approved dozens of GHG methodologies and registered over 1,600 projects in 80 countries, covering all major GHG mitigation types. The CCS+ Initiative aims to produce a coherent, high-quality and high-integrity methodological framework including a full suite of VCS methodologies and tools to account for and credit CCS+ projects at the national and international level. These methodologies would be immediately usable in the VCS, but could also be tapped by other regulatory regimes around the world (including Article 6).
15. How is the CCS+ Initiative different to past efforts in voluntary carbon markets?
The CCS+ aspires to be the leading initiative worldwide that will create carbon credit pathways for CCS and later on CCU applications, with environmental integrity and innovation as guiding principles. It is the first initiative to work on both carbon removal and reduction approaches and technologies, with a strong and unique representation of technology and solution providers, emitters and civil society. The CCS+ Initiative is also one of the first efforts to come up with a comprehensive framework to cover a broad range of technologies and solutions in a modular manner.
16. Why a modular approach?
The CCS+ Initiative’s work will be based on a modular approach covering the various mitigation facets and use cases of CCS activities i.e. realising emission reductions and carbon removals. The ultimate goal is to establish VCS carbon crediting pathways for the full suite of CCS activities (CCS, CCU(S), Bio-CCS, DACCS) and to pilot carbon methodologies acknowledging the diversity of CCS projects (and geographies). Taking a modular approach is needed to calculate the unique GHG benefits of different (part) solutions.
17. What are the priorities of the CCS+ Initiative to start with?
This first priority will be to harmonise core principles and produce a guidance document with a consistent and coherent set of general definitions. This includes outreach activities to relevant stakeholders to gather input and encourage the adoption of the resulting outputs. In parallel, the CCS+ Initiative will start to assess needs and requirements for methodologies for each step in the CCS value chain, i.e. from the capture and the transport of carbon to the usage and/or storage of it. This will be followed by the development of a coherent, robust methodological framework within which the CCS+ methodologies would fit under the VCS.
18. What is the process of developing a quantification methodology under the VCS?
Rules and requirements for methodology development is available at
19. When will the CCS+ carbon methodologies be available?
20. How will the outputs of the CCS+ Initiative be used in the market? And by whom?
The objective of the CCS+ Initiative is to unlock and scale-up CCS-related climate action in carbon markets, with an initial focus on project-based methodologies for the VCM and Article 6. The methodologies developed under the CCS+ Initiative would be immediately usable in the VCM by companies around the world. The Paris Agreement architecture and the mitigation targets that countries have pledged in the context of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) also requires tools for a solid accounting of emissions along the complete CCS value chain (source of fuels, CO2capture, transportation and storage) at the national and international level (including transboundary accounting solutions). Countries may therefore also use the outputs.
21. What is the relevance of the initiative for existing or emerging mandatory carbon pricing schemes worldwide?
The CCS+ Initiative may set a useful precedent for how carbon pricing schemes may account for and credit CCS activities, including key issues such as permanence, additionality and market leakage. Further, some compliance schemes may choose to accept Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) generated from these methodologies.
22. Is the CCS+ Initiative open to additional partners and observers?
The CCS+ Initiative is open to additional partners and observers. The Initiative will establish an Advisory Group that will be composed of NGOs, industry associations, academics, and other key stakeholders. The Initiative will engage with interested stakeholders to promote the work and adoption of outputs within voluntary carbon markets and regulatory regimes.
23. Who will /can join the CCS+ initiative
The CCS+ Initiative will be set-up as a joint and open alliance where industry leaders bring their projects to the initiative and together with internationally renowned methodological experts co-create the needed methodologies and tools. Additional members are most welcome to join the CCS+ Initiative at any time to bring their interests and projects to this effort, collaborate on methodological development and share learnings.
24. How will the CCS+ Initiative be governed?
The CCS+ initiative will be governed in a lean way to ensure that results are produced fast and effectively. A Steering Committee will provide the mandate to the Secretariat which will coordinate the relevant tasks and outputs of two Working Groups, with continuous and iterative collaboration across the groups. The CCS+ Initiative will also establish an Advisory Group, comprising NGOs, industry associations, academics, and other key stakeholders, to guide the work and ensure that the final products will be broadly embraced and used.
25. How will the CCS+ Initiative ensure a transparent and robust methodology development process adhering to environmental integrity?
The Advisory Group will include NGOs, industry associations, academics such as IETA. Verra has a robust and transparent methodology approval process, and the initiative will submit documents to Verra that will be subject to the same rigor and review as all methodologies under the VCS system.
