Opinion
Stacey Kauk says carbon removal is waste management, not venture capital
“The reality is that carbon removal's in the VC world right now because there's no funding from elsewhere. And I don't see this being a long-term financing solution, because carbon removal is waste management. Like, it's just cleaning the air, like, we clean ou…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stacey Kauk predicts carbon removal takes 30 years to become a commodity
“In order to function properly, we need to end up in a place where a ton is a ton is a ton, and there's two reasons for that. One, it, Provides that level playing field on the side of the suppliers, but it also provides a level requirement across companies or w…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Stacey Kauk says some carbon removal startups sell credits below cost
“One, they're gonna charge the cost. Their price is equal to the cost. And then there are other companies that their price Is less than the cost, and they're taking a loss because they want to come out, and they are having, they have a different business strate…”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stacey Kauk predicts carbon removal will become a government-funded public mandate
“So in the longer term, I think this is going to be more of a public requirement Then it is going to be something that's got to achieve gigaton scale and make, you know, the ROI that the VC funds are looking for.”
Insight
Stacey Kauk says early-stage carbon removal startups take three years to deliver
“That's what we're seeing play out is, you know, it is about three years before you can get those deliveries, because when we're making those purchase decisions, often we don't have full visibility, and neither does the company.”
Disclosure
Shopify relies on internal standards rather than existing registry protocols
“So when we started, we began, it was, we didn't trust a credit that came out against an established protocol on a existing registry.
We reviewed everything and went through it and set ourselves a new internal standard for what we would buy.
so no, we do that …”
Opinion
Stacey Kauk says natural carbon removal is cheaper due to lower energy
“For me, in terms of what's hot, what's not, I really like carbon removal that enhances natural systems, because they use less energy, which makes them more cost effective.”
Opinion
Stacey Kauk says immature measurement and verification blocks new carbon buyers
“I think this is the biggest holdback, I think, to getting more buyers into the carbon removal market is the infancy of the MRV for these new approaches.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stacey Kauk says mainstream buyers are five years away from carbon removal
“Like, there's a lot of credit buyers out there who are sitting on the sidelines waiting for these MRV approaches to get
Tested, proven, increased data sets so that things are statistically significant,
and then they're going to be like, okay, well, the risk is…”
Insight
Stacey Kauk argues carbon removal pilot failures should be viewed as progress
“We're going to see things that don't work out in the next little while, and there's going to be stories about carbon removal projects that failed, and I don't think that these should be held up as a reason not to do carbon removal.
They should be held up as pr…”
Disclosure
Shopify has purchased nearly 85,000 tons of durable carbon removal
“So we're just under 85,000 tons and that's durable carbon removal. So it doesn't include things with less than an estimated a hundred year permanence.”
Disclosure
Shopify received its first carbon removal deliveries from Running Tide and Climeworks
“Things have started to change in the back half of 2023 where we got our first ocean deliveries from Running Tide, and then our first DAC credit delivery from Climeworks, which is the first batch of credits we've received from them from the contract that we sig…”
Disclosure
Shopify has 40 carbon removal companies across multiple pathways in its portfolio
“We've got 40 companies in our portfolio now, across a multitude of pathways”
Disclosure
Shopify evaluates its carbon removal suppliers every six months for backups
“And so we do a health check. And we do that health check every six months. And on an annual basis, we'll identify companies that, you know, we have concerns about. And then we look at, okay, well, they're in this vertical, they're doing this technology, we pro…”
