Dear valued Puro.earth carbon removal suppliers and partners, 

The Voluntary Carbon Market has undergone a great evolution over the past few years and Puro.earth has played a pivotal role in this transformation — especially in the engineered removals sector. 

We have achieved significant growth in both CORC issuance and ecosystem expansion. Our CORC volume surged from under 100,000 in 2023 to over 400,000 in 2024, thanks to more than 50 certified Carbon Removal Production Facilities. Simultaneously, our supplier network expanded to include 264 Carbon Removal Production Facilities now in our ecosystem.

We are proud that we have evolved from a small incubator to a global platform and are on track to have over 100 certified projects issuing CORCs by the end of 2025. This reflects successful collaboration with our valued partners and further exemplifies our position as a top leader in carbon dioxide removal. 

Adapting to Market Dynamics: 

In November 2024, Puro.earth received industry feedback that prompted a swift revision of our CORC issuance process. This change was necessitated by the evolving CDR market dynamics and thus adapting industry standards calling for verification procedures with higher frequency.

Our original process was based on the key characteristic of engineered carbon removals: industrial & repeatable processes with data trails. It prioritized efficiency, allowing continuous issuance and steady income streams for suppliers with one annual third-party verification. While this high-frequency model was crucial for initial market development, we recognized the need to align with heightened industry expectations.

The new and currently used process requires individual third-party verification for each CORC issuance, replacing our previous system of annual retrospective verifications. This increases verification frequency from once to potentially twelve times per year where more than one issuance per year is requested and thus significantly raising costs. As we will continue to cover these expenses, we determined that scaling this approach to our current network of hundreds of projects would be financially unsustainable. This is one of the aspects that matters most to us: we do not only want to transform the economy to reward for carbon removal – we also want to ensure this happens at climate relevant scale for which sustainable processes are essential.

Addressing Your Concerns:

We acknowledge that this abrupt change affects our suppliers' business models, and we take your concerns seriously. To address this challenge, we have implemented an interim solution: the Increased Audit Frequency model. This allows for up to 12 third-party audits annually and thus issuances, balancing the need for increased scrutiny with the ability to scale an emerging market. Additionally, we introduced a new minimum CORC threshold in our fee structure. This change offers two options: a fixed fee per CORC with volume discounts for audits exceeding the minimum threshold, and a flat fee for those below it. By implementing this tiered approach, we aim to make market entry accessible for suppliers of various sizes while maintaining rigorous verification standards. These adjustments collectively provide a more flexible and scalable approach for our suppliers, supporting the growth of carbon removal projects across different scales of operation.

While the initial transition was rapid due to time constraints, we are committed to refining our approach, which is why are planning to update our interim solution. 

Building Smarter Solutions:

We are developing two key solutions to address the challenges of increased verification frequency while maintaining market efficiency. First, we already started focusing on the standardization and automation of monitoring and reporting through dMRV long before that change in processes was announced. We have established a working group with leading dMRV providers that has been collaborating for quite a while to create a robust, scalable system that prioritizes quality and real-world applicability. Our goal is to develop a solution that is not only operable and scalable but also easily understood and used by the entire market under real-life conditions. We will be announcing exciting pilot projects soon!

Secondly, we have redesigned our audit process to significantly reduce verification costs without compromising quality. This involves further standardizing documentation, focusing on key performance verification components, and enhancing collaboration with VVBs. While annual audits will remain unchanged, we will offer more frequent issuances with third-party verifications in between.

The combination of dMRV and streamlined auditing will substantially reduce workload and costs in the long run; however, it is important to maintain realistic expectations about implementation timelines and usability. As of now, we do already offer up to 12 audits per year, i.e. monthly issuance; however, only for such facilities that exceed a minimum issuance threshold.

With these improvements focusing on a redesigned audit process to bridge the time until dMRV can be rolled out to the wider market in a useful manner, we plan to return to a higher issuance cadence by the end of Q2 2025. At the same time, we will pass on our efficiency gains to our ecosystem, aiming to significantly lower the volume requirements for these while those that do not qualify will continue to get access to verification through the already existing flat fee. 

We appreciate your honest feedback and understanding of the recent changes. As the leading standard and registry in the carbon removals market, with nearly six years of commercial operations, hundreds of audits conducted, over 800,000 CORCs issued, and more than 250 registered projects, we are confident in our ability to implement these changes effectively with the support of our ecosystem of partners, suppliers, buyers, and advisory groups. Our commitment remains focused on delivering a commercially viable and sustainable service to all our carbon dioxide removal ecosystem partners at scale. 

Here’s to scaling carbon removal! 

Sincerely,

Benno Fuchs
Chief Operating Officer
Puro.earth Oy