The Absolute Carbon Standard (ACS) is a set of assessments and criteria for objectively defining any project’s impact on global emissions. ACS assessments and criteria are objective, climate-based, and founded on fundamental scientific principles. ACS establishes the enduring framework for emissions assessment that will ensure carbon markets reach gigaton scale with gigaton climate impact.
ACS Core Assessments
ACS is designed to support net zero emission targets, accurate emissions trading and accounting, and industry growth and innovation.
ACS achieves this through three core assessments that define any emissions pathway:
- Anthropogenic Emissions Model
Models project emissions in the carbon cycle to determine the impact on the global carbon balance. AEM assesses where anthropogenic activities are moving emissions, not how they are moved. - Mitigation Type
ACS designates project mitigation types depending on the calculated outcome of AEM. Projects are found to produce either net positive, negative, or neutral impact on the emissions balance. Mitigation types provide direct accounting value for stocktakes or emissions trading. - Mitigation Class
ACS provides separate designations for projects that are innovating new concepts with uncertain impacts from projects deploying at commercial scale with known impacts. Class designation allows for continued development of innovations while ensuring credits meet their climate claims.
Anthropogenic Emissions Model
The Anthropogenic Emissions Model (AEM) is used to determine the impact project emissions have on the global carbon cycle. Criteria of the model are defined by conditions and principles of the carbon cycle. The model applies the same criteria to any and every project, irrespective of mitigation pathway. Projects are found to either have a net positive, net negative, or neutral impact on the carbon balance.
AEM models the carbon cycle in three emission pools and five emission pathways that are applicable and consistent to every project. The three pools are:
- Pollution Pool defines all atmospheric and marine emissions
- Use Pool defines all emissions being held for anthropogenic use
- Stored Pool defines all stored emissions
Five defined emission pathways within AEM: Extract, Release, Use/Reuse, Capture, and Store, (shown in Figure 1) describe how anthropogenic activities move emissions into, out of, and within the Use Pool. The resulting project pathway, then directly maps how the project moves emissions between the Stored and Polluting Pools - which is a direct description of its impact on the carbon cycle. Emission quantities are applied to the pathways, and the change in emissions in the Stored and Polluting Pool are summed to determine if the project produced net positive, net negative, or net zero emissions.
Mitigation Type
Mitigation Type designates AEM results as Restoration or Recovery, depending on whether AEM shows a net flux of emissions from the atmosphere into storage or shows a flux returning emissions to where they were sourced. Mitigation types are mathematically determined and explicitly defined. This improves on existing credit labels which are applied inconsistently to climate impacts. Explicit type designations provide clear guidance on claims and directs market demand to the appropriate mitigations for each emissions source. Mitigation Type ensures like-for-like trading and healthy supply-and-demand market mechanisms.
- Restoration: pathways with net transfer of emissions from the Polluting to the Stored Pool. These are negative emissions that can balance positive emissions.
- Recovery: pathways that transfer emissions back to their source pool and result in a net zero emissions impact.
Mitigation Class
Mitigation Class designates projects as Absolute or Innovation based on the assurance of their impacts. Innovation, research and development, as well as scaling of proven solutions are all essential to building a gigaton market. Without innovation there is no scale, but without proven climate outcomes, there is no measurable impact. Mitigation class allows for a clear distinction between projects with certain climate outcomes deploying at commercial scale, from projects that are prototyping and in the earlier stages of development. Innovation projects can focus on developing the next generation of solutions without being burdened by the rigorous requirements intended for more mature projects.
- Innovation Class: Projects innovating and piloting new technologies with high uncertainty. This includes projects where more research and development is needed, as well as first of a kind pilot projects.
- Absolute Class: Projects with certain, measurable, and verifiable climate impact that are focusing on deploying and scaling operations.
Simplified Framework for Industry-wide application
ACS provides a singular framework for designating and defining the climate value of any project. Because ACS is based on physical scientific principles of carbon cycles and climate science, its assessment will always be relevant to climate outcomes and applicable to any emissions. Like a coin sorting machine, ACS can designate any emission stream as an Emission, Restoration, or Recovery just by following the carbon.
ACS simplifies the complexity and variability of emissions assessments by stripping away all the project-level requirements, legacy of industry-based reduction targets, and simply determining if the emission pathway improves or worsens the carbon balance.
Carbon is carbon, it doesn’t matter what activity is used, it matters what emissions balance is created.
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