IIASA will host a one-day expert workshop in support of the European Commission’s ongoing work to develop a methodology for certifying long-term carbon storage in buildings under the Carbon Removals Certification Framework (CRCF). The workshop will bring together policymakers, scientists, and technical experts to explore how carbon stored in buildings and other long-lived products can be accounted for in a scientifically robust, time-explicit, and policy-consistent manner.
As the European Union advances its climate policy framework, greater attention is being given to the potential of buildings and long-lived bio-based products to store carbon. Developing credible ways to measure and certify this storage could help recognize the climate benefits of using more sustainable building materials and encourage their uptake.
The emerging EU methodology is intended to complement existing life-cycle assessment approaches by accounting for carbon stored in materials throughout their use in buildings. The workshop will explore key questions around how this storage should be quantified and reported, as well as requirements for monitoring, sustainability, and the potential use of certified carbon storage units in voluntary carbon markets.
Beyond these methodological questions, participants will consider how carbon storage in buildings could become a credible and investable part of future climate strategies and how demand for these approaches can be developed in practice.
The workshop connects with IIASA’s broader work on the role that sustainable timber construction could play in climate mitigation. Under the leadership of IIASA Director General Hans Joachim (John) Schellnhuber, the Institute is a founding partner of the Science and Timber Construction Alliance (SITCA), which brings together science, industry, and a broader community of stakeholders to strengthen the evidence base for sustainable timber construction and support the transition toward a climate-positive built environment.
Schellnhuber will open the workshop together with IIASA Stakeholder Engagement Coordinator Lion Verheyden. The program will bring together perspectives on timber construction, the forthcoming EU certification methodology, greenhouse gas reporting, climate investment, and the development of markets for carbon storage in buildings.
IIASA Agriculture, Forestry, and Ecosystem Services Research Group Leader, Florian Kraxner, will lead a session on conclusions and emerging research priorities. The workshop will close with a roundtable exploring key priorities for scaling carbon storage in buildings across Europe. Kraxner is also closely involved in IIASA’s work on SITCA.
Expected outcomes include identifying key methodological challenges and open questions, improving understanding of the interface between carbon accounting, policy, and markets, and developing recommendations for future scientific and policy work.
This is an invitation-only expert workshop.
Upcoming Events
Royal Belgian institute of Natural Sciences, Rue Vautier 29, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium
The Final Event of NaturaConnect: Pathways to a Trans-European Nature Network
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand