Standards Development

Scope

This BSI Flex specifies requirements for quantifying activities in the design and operation of direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) greenhouse gas removal (GGR) projects.

NOTE 1 This BSI Flex is intended for use in the UK but could also be used to inform the methodologies used to assess and credit carbon removal in other parts of the world.

NOTE 2 This BSI Flex does not determine specific market processes, policies, or other government actions in the UK, several of which are being developed in ongoing work in parallel to the work on this standard. The UK Government intends to specify details of the crediting mechanisms to be used by projects receiving government support, including the carbon crediting programmes, frequency of credit generation and the crediting period length. Projects will be able to use the same methodology for the length of the crediting period. Further details are to be provided in other government documents that detail conditions for government support.

This BSI Flex covers minimum quality thresholds that apply to the quantification of net removals achieved by stationary installations that capture carbon using chemical separation methods that can remove CO2 from ambient air at high concentrations and that store the captured CO2 permanently in geologic formations.

The BSI Flex minimum quality thresholds can be applied for the purposes of:

•           GGR project assessment prior to GGR project development (ex ante); and

•           GGR project performance evaluation, monitoring and reporting during GGR project deployment (ex post).

This BSI Flex does not cover:

•           methods for capturing atmospheric CO2, other than engineered systems at a fixed location that use chemical separations to remove CO2 from ambient air at high concentrations;

•           methods for storing captured atmospheric CO2 other than permanent storage in geological formations; or

•           methods for utilizing captured atmospheric CO2, e.g. as a chemical feedstock to produce products or materials with short lifetimes.

This BSI Flex is of use to:

•           stakeholders involved in establishing revenue support under the UK GGR business model or in other types of support schemes;

•           installation developers wishing to select methodologies from independent crediting programmes and other entities for the purpose of originating carbon credits for sale in approved markets, or for other greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting purposes; and

•           stakeholders seeking guidance on methods for determining the amount of transferred CO2, net removals or carbon credits that might result from DACCS projects.

This BSI Flex might be of interest to:

•           independent crediting programmes and other assessment and crediting methodology developers seeking a basis on which to establish estimates of negative emissions achieved by DACCS activities; and

•           stakeholders wishing to understand more about standardizing GHG monitoring, reporting and verification, and the accounting methods for DACCS in respect of net removals.