Climeworks first DAC company to be certified under Puro Standard

Key take-aways

Climeworks is the first direct air capture company worldwide to achieve certification of its carbon dioxide removal activities under the Puro Standard for its Orca plant in Iceland, operational since 2021.
The Puro Standard is the first comprehensive standard for engineered carbon removal methods in the voluntary carbon market. It sets quality requirements for solutions such as direct air capture and mineral storage and records the lifecycle of CO₂ Removal Certificates from issuance to retirement in a public registry.
The certification by an internationally recognized standards body is an important step toward standardization of the carbon removal industry, solidifying transparency and trust in the voluntary carbon market.

From left: Louis Uzor, Lead Standards & Certification at Climeworks; Martin Voigt, Head of MRV at Carbfix; Ali Daoud, Auditor at DNV; and Marianne ... — From left: Louis Uzor, Lead Standards & Certification at Climeworks; Martin Voigt, Head of MRV at Carbfix; Ali Daoud, Auditor at DNV; and Marianne Tikkanen, co-founder and Head of Standard at Puro.earth, at Climeworks’ Orca plant in Iceland.

Climeworks, the global leader in carbon removal via direct air capture technology, successfully achieved third-party certification of its carbon removal activities under the Puro Standard – a first in the direct air capture industry. In collaboration with CO2 storage and mineralization partner Carbfix, the Puro Standard methodology for Geologically Stored Carbon was applied to the removal activities at Climeworks’ Orca facility, the world’s first commercial direct air capture and storage plant in operation.

Climeworks Co-founder and Co-CEO Jan Wurzbacher says: “We are on a mission to climate impact at scale with the goal of achieving gigaton carbon removal capacity by 2050. A prerequisite for such a steep scale-up is a strong foundation of trust among investors, customers, suppliers, and partners. Climeworks is proud to be at the forefront of this and sets a new precedent of integrity: third-party certification of our carbon removal activities under the Puro Standard.”

Setting the benchmark for transparency and trust in carbon removal

Certification under the Puro Standard affirms the integrity of Climeworks’ carbon removal services and validates that the company produced net removals that fulfill a stringent set of quality criteria, such as additionality and high durability. For traceability and transparency, and to avoid double counting, the removals certified under the Puro Standard are issued in the public Puro Registry, where their complete lifecycle is recorded from issuance to retirement.

Eve Tamme, Managing Director at Climate Principles says: “Climeworks is a leading voice in the carbon removal space, advocating for and acting on stringent standards for an effective carbon removal market. A market better aligned with initiatives pushing for higher quality, such as the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative. I hope to see more carbon removal project developers following in this direction.”

How it works: certifying under the Puro Standard

Certification under the Puro Standard involves the auditing of Climeworks’ direct air capture process as well as Carbfix’s CO₂ mineralization by an accredited entity: at Orca, Puro-accredited validation and verification body DNV verifies that Climeworks’ carbon removals were performed according to the Puro methodology, fulfilling a stringent set of quality criteria. Once independently verified, Puro.earth certifies the batch of removal services within the audit window. The CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs) then get issued on the Puro registry and are retired as soon as they are delivered to a specific customer. This customer is the only one allowed to claim the credits, ensuring transparency and accountability in the process.

Marianne Tikkanen, Head of Standard at Puro.earth, says: “Climeworks stands as the first direct air capture company that has reached certification with the Puro Standard, establishing the benchmark for the entire market, where transparency and clear accounting are paramount to customers. At Puro.earth, we continue in our dedication to establishing stringent methodologies that instill confidence in buyers and drive the growth, standardization, and liquidity of engineered CDR markets.”