UNDO Helps Develop New Carbon Project Standards with Reykjavik Protocol

Due to a lack of established standards and relevant risks for buyers, environmental carbon credits and the nature-deployed solutions that generate them face barriers to scaling.

In a step towards addressing these risks, UNDO collaborated with fellow nature-deployed environmental credit suppliers, who are primarily operating in the carbon removal space, to announce a commitment to the Reykjavik Protocol.

With UNDO as one of the founding signatories, the Reykjavik Protocol is a set of principles that governs how suppliers who work with nature should responsibly bring their carbon solutions to carbon credit markets.

Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) plays a pivotal role in addressing the urgent global challenge of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has underscored the critical need for carbon removal by 2050 to limit global warming to manageable levels. Carbon removal technologies and practices involve capturing and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They provide a crucial tool in achieving net-zero emissions and safeguarding the planet’s future, offering hope for mitigating the most severe consequences of climate change.

This summit is the first time carbon removal credit suppliers of this type have convened to specifically address risks that represent barriers to scale for the industry.

Nature-deployed approaches like UNDO’s enhanced rock weathering solution utilise natural processes to remove carbon dioxide, protect critical ecosystems, increase biodiversity, and provide security for our food systems. These types of solutions represent some of the most scalable, permanent and cost-effective climate solutions available today.

What Are The Goals Of The Reykjavik Protocol?

By creating a uniform set of principles, the co-authors of the Protocol aim to increase buyer trust and address the perceived risks of the environmental credits that they and their direct competitors sell on the Voluntary Carbon Market. As a result, this should instil more confidence and further accelerate the growth of the market.

“Environmental credits are a critically important tool to fund the work of restoring the climate and ecosystem. The Reykjavik Protocol shows the commitment of credit producers, measurement companies, and research organisations to establishing science-based, trust-worthy, and effective best practices as standard for the industry.”
Marty Odlin, CEO of Running Tide and fellow co-author of the Protocol

The 12 Core Principles of the Reykjavik Protocol

In total, 12 initial principles were agreed upon. All suppliers that sign on to the Reykjavik Protocol commit to implementing its principles for their environmental credit projects within the next two years and are able to contribute to the evolution of the Protocol as the market scales.

“This Protocol is a much-needed framework to ensure the credits the industry is selling are of the highest quality possible. UNDO’s carbon removal activities will align with the 12 principles, operating at these highest standards based on the most credible science available.”
Jim Mann, Founder and CEO of UNDO