Industrial hemp could be a big help for big companies trying to make their supply chains greener. But, to fully unlock hemp’s power to fight climate change, we need strong certification programs.
A new study from HempConnect in Hamburg, which offers carbon-counting services and helps with hemp biochar projects, says there’s a big chance for hemp in the Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) market. Right now, there aren’t enough certified carbon credits, but hemp could change that.
We need to act quickly. The CDR market is growing fast, and hemp could play a key role. The report from HempConnect points out that hemp sucks up a lot of CO2 and could create a lot of CDR certificates. But so far, no high-quality certificates from hemp have been traded.
The global CDR market could be worth $100 billion by 2050, says the International Energy Agency. This growth is driven by the need to fight climate change and the development of cheaper CDR methods.
Nando Knodel, co-CEO of HempConnect, says CDR certificates are sold for at least $100 for every ton of CO2.
CDR is different from offsets. CDR measures the actual decrease in emissions, taking into account the CO2 absorbed by hemp minus any emissions from processing. Offsets, however, are about avoiding or reducing emissions, not necessarily resulting in net-negative emissions.
The report highlights how industrial hemp can contribute to the CDR market as a natural solution to climate change.
But there’s a problem with “offsets” – they’ve gotten a bad rap in the media. Poor quality certificates have led to a downward spiral in the market, the report says.
Knodel emphasizes that buying offsets might help reduce emissions, but buying CDR credits is about truly neutralizing emissions and supporting technologies that actually reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. Achieving a net-zero economy will depend on CDR.
Hemp, as a crop that offsets its own carbon footprint, has a lot of potentials. According to the report, we could start using hemp for CDR soon.
No industry can stand on the sidelines of this global effort, the report concludes.