From Garbage to Gold

March 18, 2023

From Garbage to Gold

A Miami-based climate tech company develops a method to create carbon credits from reducing food waste while the world’s largest carbon credit developer produces credits from railways.

A Canadian biochar producer secures $38 million to expand its production and the EU plans for Net Zero. 

Let’s jump right in!

 

Don't be Wasteful with Waste

The global food system emits about a third of total annual GHG emissions, and food waste represents about half of this footprint.

A study found that global food waste emitted 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2e (GtCO2e) or about the same as the total emissions of the US and the EU in 2017.

To help address this concern, a climate tech firm CoreZero decided to rescue food waste and quantify the prevention of 221,800 tons of carbon emissions. The company then converted these reductions into the world's first carbon credits from waste. 

With this approach, CoreZero aims to transform the 1.3 billion tons of food waste annually into carbon credits. 

 

More Money from the Railway

One of the world’s largest carbon credits developers and suppliers, EKI Energy, was chosen to provide consultancy services for the carbon credits project of the Indian Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL).

The goal of the deal is to boost the environmental impact of the more efficient metro railway by certifying its GHG emission reductions and then monetizing them in the form of carbon credits. 

By inking the agreement with KMRL, EKI is now responsible for the validation, registration, verification, issuance, and trading of carbon credits generated from KMRL projects. 

 

Black is Back

The use of green industrial products such as biochar and biocoal is critical to the fight against climate change by reducing significant GHG emissions. And Canadian-based Airex Energy's latest fundraising proved that.

The firm managed to raise $38 million in its Series B round to speed up its plans to expand the production of its green industrial products. Since 2016, Airex has been running the first and only industrial production plant in Canada that specializes in biocoal and biochar.

One tonne of biochar can sequester 2.5 to 3.2 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. For the biochar producer, that means they could earn over a million tonnes of carbon credits by 2035.

 

The EU goes Net Zero

The European Commission wants to make it easier for companies to manufacture clean technologies in the EU. They proposed the Net-Zero Industry Act to help achieve this goal.

The Act aims to create more jobs and support the EU's energy independence.

A group called the Net-Zero Industry Platform will oversee the Act's progress, and the European Parliament and the EU Council need to agree to it before it becomes law.

Carbon Fact of the Week

The global biomass production is ~146 billion tons/year, of which 3% is agricultural waste, making it ideal for developing countries to replace fossil fuels with renewable biofuels. 

For instance, about 402 million tons of biocoal could be produced in China through its agricultural and forestal wastes, which is equal to 384 million tons of standard coal equivalent (tce). 

It is projected that about 400 million tce biocoal can be produced in 2030. If the equivalent amounts of coal were replaced, 738 million tons of CO2 emission could be reduced./ 

Source: https://carboncredits.com/