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CBL exchange eyes growing share of offset trade
Exchange traded volumes rising as voluntary carbon market matures, CBL’s parent company Xpansiv tells Carbon Economist
Nature-based carbon offset momentum defies critics
A recent trend towards offset crediting at a jurisdictional level is raising funds at a much larger scale than traditional project-based programmes
Offset oversupply threatens carbon removal tech
Surplus offsets in voluntary carbon market could depress prices to 2050 and deter investment in more expensive removal methods, says BloombergNEF
Offsets standards body refutes media’s Redd+ claims
Studies underpinning recent reports are flawed, according to technical review published by Verra
Core carbon principles could boost voluntary market
Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market to launch finalised Core Carbon Principles for credit programmes and projects, the body’s chair tells Carbon Economist
Voluntary market set to embrace removals
Carbon-removal technologies to gain market share as companies fret over quality of credits generated by avoidance projects, according to Shell and BCG
Alaska looks to tap carbon markets
US state’s governor proposes legislation to support expansion of CCS and generation of tradeable offsets
Rio Tinto to offset over 5pc of 2030 emissions goal
The mining company will develop 1mn t of in-house emissions offsets through projects on its existing land
EU must clarify CO₂ removal rules
Carbon removals proposal must prioritise emissions cuts and differentiate between short-term and long-term storage, according to NGOs
New umbrella CO₂ offset contract launched
The GER contract has been designed to tackle some of the problems with existing voluntary carbon markets
There are roughly 2mn unplugged oil and gas wells in the US
Opinion
Carbon offsets Wells
Morgan Bazilian and Brad Handler
26 January 2022
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Crediting emissions saved in plugging oil and gas wells

Avoided emissions could be credited as carbon offsets and sold on exchanges

Funds totalling $21bn have been allocated in the US’ recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to clean up former industrial and energy sites, including properly retiring some of the estimated 2mn of unplugged abandoned oil and gas (O&G) wells in the US. Those funds can be stretched further if the avoided methane is credited as carbon offsets and sold on carbon exchanges. Using a reference well from Pennsylvania and recent carbon offset pricing from one voluntary exchange, such a system of credits could generate 10-15pc of the well’s estimated plugging cost. Unplugged abandoned wells collectively are modest relative emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), contributing less than

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