Captain Drawdown’s daily logbook on every CDR story, paper, and expert voice — so you don’t have to read them all.
This week’s deal flow forms a map, not a technology chart. Five numbers from five jurisdictions show that where a project sits, and under which regulator, is now the primary determinant of whether it finances. The pathway matters less than the postcode.
1.77 million credits. Rwanda authorized Econetix to market up to 1.77M CORSIA-eligible credits under Article 6, per Biochar Today’s reporting on the ICAO letter. This is a government-issued letter of authorization sized for compliance aviation demand. Article 6 supply is being minted at the host-country level, and Rwanda moved first at this volume.
150,000 tonnes per year. PureField Ingredients commissioned a 150,000 tCO2/yr capture and sequestration facility in Russell, Kansas, per Carbon Herald. The project pencils because Kansas holds Class VI well primacy (the state, not the federal EPA, permits the injection wells) and because the federal 45Q tax credit stacks on top. Neither factor is available in most US states. The geology and the tax code chose the site.
CA$135 million. Convertus closed CA$135M (about US$96.2M) in project financing for a waste-to-biofuel and food-grade CO2 plant, reported by Carbon Herald. The unit economics run on Canadian provincial waste policy and industrial-gas offtake, not voluntary carbon buyers. In the same week, Entropy commissioned Phase 2 of its Glacier CCS project in Saddle Hills County, Alberta. Two Canadian CO2 projects in one week, both leaning on provincial rules rather than the voluntary market.
100% US-based portfolio. Deduci launched an all-domestic US CDR portfolio through Isometric. The product is designed around California’s AB 1305 disclosure requirements and the friction of buying foreign credits. Geography itself is now the feature being sold, and it prices above global averages. As I noted this week: “Domestic-only portfolios are a hedge against AB 1305 disclosure risk and possible cross-border credit friction. Curation cost is the tradeoff: US biochar and DAC price above global averages.”
Over 95% CCP coverage. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market’s approval of BioCarbon Standard, Cercarbono, and Plan Vivo pushed Core Carbon Principle coverage past 95% of the voluntary market. Paired with the European Commission’s July 17 review of international credits for the ETS, this integrity floor is what decides which country-of-origin credits reach European compliance buyers, and which stay stranded in the voluntary channel or in CORSIA.
Pattern. These five numbers describe a market fragmenting by jurisdiction rather than by pathway. A buyer paying a premium for a 100% US portfolio and a buyer sourcing 1.77M compliance credits from a host-country authorization are operating in the same week but not in the same market. Chris Bataille (@chrisbataille.bsky.social) noted this week that Permian fugitive methane roughly halved 2019-2023, “from 5.2 to 3.2% in Texas and from 4.5 to 2.1% in New Mexico.” Two states, one basin, different outcomes. The same logic now sorts CDR deals: state Class VI primacy, provincial waste rules, host-country Article 6 letters, and disclosure statutes determine which projects close, largely independent of dollars per tonne.
If you are structuring a CDR deal in the next quarter, the jurisdiction column deserves more attention than the pathway column. The open question is the EU Commission’s international-credits consultation for the 2040 target. Whichever countries land on the whitelist will decide whether Article 6 authorizations of the type Rwanda just issued convert into European compliance demand, or remain confined to aviation offsets. That list, more than any technology roadmap, will redraw the map again.
Citations
- Biochartoday — Biochar Today’s reporting on the ICAO letter
- Carbon Herald — per Carbon Herald
- Carbon Herald — reported by Carbon Herald
- Isometric — Isometric
- Bluesky — noted this week — Bluesky post
- Icvcm — Core Carbon Principle
- Bluesky — @chrisbataille.bsky.social — Bluesky post