This Is CDR Ep.101: The Carbon Removal Standards Initiative with Anu Khan

​This Is CDR is back!
​OpenAir is excited to present This Is CDR, an online event series that explores the wide range of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions currently being researched, developed, and deployed, and discusses them in the context of policies OpenAir seeks to formulate and advance at every level of government in the U.S., as well as in national and subnational jurisdictions globally.
​This week we are pleased to welcome Anu Khan of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative.
Link: www.carbonremo...
​In the fall of 2022, Carbon180 published its guide to high accountability MRV, CDR industry stakeholders met in San Francisco to discuss the state of standardization, and scientists convened in Rhode Island to consider the technical and social underpinnings of MRV in open systems like the ocean. Since then, interest in MRV has exploded, with events, panels and workshops all over the world. And Anu Khan (former Deputy Director of Science & Innovation at Carbon180) has been going around to those events asking: What are standards? Where do standards come from? And whose job is this anyway?
​18 months of research on the carbon removal ecosystem, extensive industry interviews, and case studies from other emerging industries has led to the launch of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative (CRSI). CRSI is a new nonprofit initiative focused on bringing rigor and accountability to the CDR sector through the uniquely powerful mechanism of regulatory standards. In today's episode of This Is CDR, Anu explains what CRSI does, why they focus on policy, and how they work with partners across the CDR ecosystem.
​Anu founded CRSI in early 2024 while an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon180. She previously led the Science & Innovation team at Carbon180. Prior to Carbon180, Anu worked in climate philanthropy at Founders Pledge. Her academic background is in electrochemistry and materials science.

[@JérômeThomas-i9v]

What is not to like here? Your approach both on MRV and on policy instruments is novel and helpful. This is a database whose time had come. Your presentation of standards may be the most comprehensive to date, and the flux table is a beauty: we only ever mention more than a handful of these fluxes in any discussion of CDR, and here we are finally getting a comprehensive, easily understandable list for the first time. Your related Reservoir & Flux Framework takes the business of pathway overviews to a new level of rigor and logic, nicely fitting on a single page. Kudos also for linking to the source documents: you do walk the talk on practicality. Keep up the good work.