Key Insights from the Pembina Institute’s Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Buyers’ Survey.

The Pembina Institute's recently released report, A Scan of Carbon Dioxide Removal Buyers in Canada, highlights the industry’s understanding and corporate appetite for investment in CDR technologies. This report marks the first publicly-available survey conducted in Canada aimed at CDR knowledge and interest and provided key insights for industry actors.?

With 202 organizations invited to participate, the report focused on the 11% of respondents representing the Curious Newcomers and Engaged Buyers segments.?

Characteristics of Curious Newcomers (7% of respondents):

• This audience is not characterized by past actions related to CDR purchases, but rather a desire to learn more about the market.
• CDR is not currently on their radar, but they're enthusiastic about learning more.
• 78% have current net-zero targets, with 14% being validated by SBTi.
• The majority have purchased carbon credits before, just not durable CDR.
• Barriers to purchase ranged from high purchase price to a lack of understanding as to how durable CDR differs from other carbon credits.
• Nearly half of respondents would be motivated to make a CDR purchase if a federal or provincial government CDR purchase was announced. while more than half would be motivated by similar purchase by other leading Canadian organizations.
• With a limited understanding of CDR, resources and messaging targeted to this group should focus on knowledge transfer surrounding CDR and its role in mitigating climate change.?
• This group is represented by a broader category of industries.

Characteristics of Engaged Buyers (4% of respondents):

• This audience is highly engaged, has previously purchased durable CDR credits and shares a common desire to be seen as leaders in the space.
• 81% have net-zero goals with 18% having targets validated by SBTi; 88% have purchased durable CDR credits before.
• Over 75% of respondents identified location as being important to very important; indicating a desire to purchase credits directly from a project rather than an exchange.
• Over 75% indicated economic reconciliation and project partnership with Indigenous communities to be important to very important; highlighting the importance of broader community impacts in addition to meaningful climate-positive outcomes.
• With a strong understanding of CDR, resources and messaging targeted to this group should focus on improving the effectiveness of their purchase process.?
• This group is predominantly represented by the finance industry with some participation from information/technology and professional services.

With the scaling of technology-based CDR crucial to complementing direct emissions reductions to meet net zero emissions targets by 2050 and the 1.5°C warming limit set by the Paris Agreement, understanding buyer knowledge and motivations is critical to driving organizations to act.?

Invert Insights.

?? While the report focused on scaling technology-based CDR, Nature Based Solutions (NBS) offer a similar trajectory in contributing to global climate goals. As such, it can be expected that the findings may be transferable, with the smaller proportion of early adopters being responsible for driving innovation and market sophistication while paving the path to purchase for less mature buyers investigating the space. Creating NBS resources for the different buyer segments should follow the same recommendations as this report to incite action.

?? Understanding the motivations of Curious Newcomers and bridging the knowledge gap is critical to rapid scaling of durable CDR, as motivating this segment to purchase could more than double current participation in the market.

??Of the 202 organizations invited to participate, 108 (89%) did not respond and were categorized as the Unengaged Minority signaling both a challenge and opportunity to engage a significant proportion of organizations that may not have considered CDR purchase - or perhaps even carbon credit purchases in general - but have firmographic characteristics that could indicate a desire or need for future purchase.?

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