Nature-based Carbon Removal News
Climate Cleanup
Climate Cleanup is a group of entrepreneurial people who actually draw down CO2 from the atmosphere with nature. Join!
In this newsletter
Dear?friend,
In 2024 it took quite some effort to see the positive climate news. It was the year the AMOC shutdown came into popular attention. The global political situation isn’t excessively supportive. And asking top scientists about the state of the climate, they say “Much of the very fabric of life on Earth is imperiled.” And of course, that also includes us.
So we keep looking harder, working smarter on solutions, deeply motivated by our children and by all people working on alternatives. A lot of good news is there to share. Sentinel, the European carbon measuring satellite, is back online. Province of Gelderland successfully started a European collaboration called Agro Building Carbon (ABC), in partnership with Climate Cleanup. The EU CRCF is adopted (final text here) and will enter into force on 26 December. While it is not perfect, it does offer a world first framework for certification of removals, and Oncra is ready to implement it.
Removers like Erwin Westers and Wolf Bierens are making progress in not only removing carbon with nature, but also monetising their removal credits, creating financial value from stored carbon. And this might be the core of tomorrow’s economy, as carbon taken out of the atmosphere has a value to society of at least €875 per ton(1000 kg CO2) to our global economies.
Then of course, helping to preserve the ‘very fabric of life’ is impossible to put into monetary value. The work of Erwin and others is fundamentally valuable, it is literally saving life in the soil, the people who eat their produce, and the lives of future generations. This is not just a nice idea. It is part of turning the ship around, it is re-creating our future. And we all can help.
So what can you do? Can you help us connect the people working every day on climate solutions, on removing carbon with nature? Can you help us develop systemic interventions, like seaweed solutions or carbon accounting that drives finance to farmers and builders who restore carbon? Can you support the ecosystem of people who spend their working time on reversing climate change?
We truly see no more effective and useful thing to spend our lives on right now, and we do love you to join, as Ambassadors or in other ways. You can support Oyster Heaven in re-creating oyster banks. You can support ‘removers’, regenerative builders and famers like Erwin Westers, to capture and store carbon while restoring nature and producing healthy food. You can support our work at Climate Cleanup Foundation developing the systemic structures (like Oncra) to swiftly enable all of these heroes to store carbon with nature. It is what has to happen. It is creating a nice world. And it might be a next step in the evolution of life on planet earth.
So thank you all of you who helped already, and thank you all of you who consider a tax-deductible donation or Ambassadorship with a monthly donation. Thank you all of you who help us connect to non-polluting companies who can buy removal credits to offset their residual emissions; to help us connect to tomorrow. Together we are creating a new economy. We wish you happy holidays, best of luck in all your challenges, and a new year filled with love, life and connection. Hope to see you soon!
Warm regards, on behalf of the team,
Sven Jense
PS: We do recommend you watch Erwin Westers video below. Their results are extraordinary.
Horaholm announces removal credit success
Regenerative farm Horaholm has been doing ordinary things differently. Growing ‘regular’ crops like potatoes and carrots in the very northern part of the Netherlands, they managed to sequester more carbon than many thought was even possible. How? By radically turning towards the soil. Watch the video to hear Erwin Westers explain himself.
As a result of this video, some quite substantial removal credit sales have been initiated, further enabling an actual positive and sustainable businesscase for their cutting-edge regenerative farming practices.?
Koppert Cress bought some of Horaholm's first removal credits. Bart van Meurs from Division Q, part of Koppert Cress, explains: "For us at Koppert Cress, compensation can never happen without first reducing our emissions substantially. So that is what we have been doing for over a decade. Now, we are starting to clean up our residual emissions, and we prefer to do this with local, Dutch partners. Horaholm is a logical choice, given the highly innovative nature of their regenerative farming practice. Erwin really shows how to work with soil life to produce tasty, healthy crops while storing a lot of organic carbon. They show us what the future of agriculture can look like.”
Erwin’s work is based on many years of own research as well as on insights from across Europe. They work extensively with Dietmar N?ser. For those who want to learn more we advise his book on Regenerative Farming, which is also available in Dutch. And to directly support Erwin and regenerative practices, removal credits are now available directly via Horaholm or a broker.
Adopt a Mother Reef with Oyster Heaven
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But here’s the challenge: ???? ?????? ?????????? ??????, ???????????? ?????????? ?????? ???????????????????????? ??????????????. It’s time to turn the tide. Together, we can bring oysters back to the ocean, and now, YOU can be part of this transformative journey.
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Help bring 100 baby oysters to the sea
Create a thriving habitat for hundreds of marine species?
Help filter thousands of litres of water daily
With your adoption, you can become an ???????????? ????????????????, a ???????????? ???????? ????????????????, or ???????????? ???????? ??????????????, and receive updates about your reef directly in your inbox. Join the mission today. Together, we can rebuild the historic oyster reefs of the North Sea.
Visit Oyster Heaven to adopt your reef today.
Easy Housing offers first-ever Construction Stored Carbon Removal Credits
The result of a broad ecosystem collaboration, we congratulate Wolf Bierens and team at Easy Housing for offering the first Construction Stored Carbon Removal credits actually for sale on the voluntary markets!
Also for Climate Cleanup this also is a huge mile-stone, the result of a process that started with a collaboration with ASN Bank, and now unites a network of parters like Built by Nature / Good Energies Foundation (ecosystem support), Scature (broker), African Data Technologies (data verifier), Oncra (certifier, registry), DOEN (scale up funding in Uganda), with other construction sector frontrunners like Nice Developersand Ballast Nedam Development, the European Commission and many others. Thank you all.
Easy Housing projects
The removal was realised in the first 10 Easy Housing projects in Uganda. These homes have been built and completed and have together stored 109 tons of CO2 (of which about 100 are still available). Next to that, these projects have sustained over 10 football fields of forests, created over 100 green jobs, and avoided an estimated additional 80 tonnes of CO2 by not using cement or steel. The first 100 carbon removal units (CRU = 1 tonne of net CO2 removal) are certified with Oncra. Easy Housing are now selling these first 100 CRUs as a limited edition for only EUR 50 per removal unit.
Standards for Buyers
Oncra holds strict ethical standards for buyers. Buyers are only allowed to buy credits if they show they are also reducing their own emissions. Furthermore, the entire methodology is fully transparent and relies on hard quantifiable and verifiable data.
Removal vs reduction
There is an important difference between reduction credits (majority on voluntary market) and actual Carbon Removal Units. For every CRU an actual tonne of CO2 has been effectively removed from the atmosphere and stored for long term in our biobased structures.
Learn more
Reach out at [email protected] if you want to learn more.
Contact Scature for more information and availability of these limited removal credits.
Access the open data in the project documentation on the Oncra Registry.
Agro Building Carbon (ABC) approved
Our European ABC project (Agriculture Building Carbon) has been (conditionally) approved by Interreg Europe! In the coming 4 years Climate Cleanup will technically support the consortium led by Provincie Gelderland who will be the lead partner in developing policy instruments to promote carbon sequestration in agriculture crops to be used in the building sector and biobased products. We will implement this project together with 10 partners (mainly regions) from 8 different countries.
Coordinating policy development across Europe will vastly improve the chances of a swift and effective implementation of the CRCF, the European removal certification regulation. Climate Cleanup is grateful for the collaboration. Wietse Hermannsworked with Province of Gelderland, Climate Cleanup and all potential parters to co-create the idea and consortium. “I am very happy we are starting this European collaboration, as we are literally building the future. In times where countries are trying to close borders, we keep finding each other across Europe. This is where the power of collaboration shows!”
领英推荐
Rock Stored Carbon Protocol open for feedback
By Lieke van Zon
We’re excited to share that the second draft of the Rock-Stored Carbon Protocol is ready for review by Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) experts, friends and stakeholders. With this feedback, we aim to refine the protocol and align it with current scientific and practical standards in the field of ERW.
Following this expert review round, the protocol will be published on the ONCRA website, where it will open for feedback from a broader audience. Please e-mail us at [email protected] to already receive a feedback copy. Stay tuned as we take this next step toward advancing ERW solutions together!
Our feedback on Dutch klimaatplan 2025-2035
Climate Cleanup Foundation reacted to the recent internet consultation on the National Climate Plan 2025-2035 by the Dutch government, arguing that adding natural carbon removal to the Climate Plan‘s section on removal offers many opportunities for not only removing and storing carbon, but also for restoring nature, human and animal health, and developing the regenerative circular biobased economy – as you all know.
The table shown needs to be seen in context, as the current draft plan only showed technological storage. Natural and technological carbon removal are in fact not separated but intimately connected, and nature-based removal in fact needs human technology.?
ESA Sentinel Satellite that measures carbon finally relaunched
How do you effectively measure carbon in plants and forests? Historically, assessors had to take there measuring tape, fly around the world and measure trees at breast height. But in the middle of the climate and nature breakdown, how will this ever scale? Enter Copernicus. As part of this EU funded space programme, the European Space Agency launched the Sentinel Satellites. And from 2010 on these delivered free and open data on carbon in ecosystems all over the world.
Until in 2021, when the satellite broke down. For four years, we had to do without new data. So we are thrilled that on December 5, the brand new Sentinel 1C has been successfully launched. The image of the Dutch polder is the first image it captured.
The great volunteer coder Franco Chan developed a straight and simple tool to access the massive carbon dataset, free for the world to use. Simply upload your area map, and it gives you the above ground carbon since 2010, also as CO2 equivalent. The ESA data does provide uncertainty ranges, something to implement in a next iteration of the tool. We look forward to continuing ONCRA’s above ground biomass assessment and congratulate all involved at ESA with the success of this recent launch.
New Documentary on Lenteland farms
Looking for a heartwarming story to watch during the holidays? In his latest documentary, Rik van der Linden follows four Lenteland farms with farmers making the switch to this way of food production and living. It has already been dubbed 'the Dutch Biggest Little Farm' by some.
You can watch it online. So sit back during the holidays and take a look at what life is like on Lenteland farms. Are you inspired and interested in screening the film or do you have ideas for a suitable place (small cinema, community centre, association) where it should definitely be seen? Contact [email protected].
Join to help us reverse climate change
We need you! Is there a more effective climate action imaginable than to re-store carbon with nature? We doubt it. Climate Cleanup Foundation exists to reverse climate change by reconnecting our economy, even our society, with the natural processes supporting life on earth. We believe we are intimately connected to this life, even more so now ‘biodiversity’ as it is often called is heavily declining.
With your donations we develop the smartest systemic interventions we encounter, to collectively create a vibrant and definitely bio-based, life-based society. Recent examples include the probably world’s first method for carbon removal in buildings, the unique non-profit nature-based certification scheme called ONCRA, vibrant conferences, and a number of innovations developed in close collaboration with heroic entrepreneurs who actually remove carbon with nature: farmers, builders, rock-dust and ocean innovators.
You can strengthen our ecosystem by donating. Did you know your donations to Climate Cleanup Foundation are tax-deductible? We also warmly invite you to become a regular donor and join as an Ambassador to Climate Cleanup Foundation. Or, if you are already an Ambassador, we would very much appreciate it if you would refer a friend by sharing the link climatecleanup.org/join/. Your donations keep us independent and help us scale carbon removal with nature. It is needed, it is positive, it is the future. Looking forward to see you join!
Join our Whatsapp-groups
Did you know we have two app-groups connecting the Climate Cleanup network? An English and a Dutch one. Join them by clicking here (EN) or here (NL), or scan the QR codes below.
Upcoming Events
26/12 The EU CRCF enters into force
28/1/2025 EU CRCF conference on funding opportunities for carbon removal
23/1 15.00 ONCRA Removers Meeting (reply to this e-mail to attend)
4/3 - 6/3 the 2nd European Carbon Farming Summit in Dublin, Ireland
28/5 Funding the Future #2 – Climate Cleanup Conference 2025
3-5/6 ERW25 Enhanced Rock Weathering conference with Antwerp University
Help nature-based carbon removal grow
Removing and storing carbon with nature is the other half of the climate solution. Please support natural removal as Ambassador to Climate Cleanup. Want free access to Climate Cleanup events, networking opportunities, and access to our network of entrepreneurs? Join now, and/or refer a friend.
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Donations keep the foundation independent.? We are very grateful for your support.?