Seafields, a UK-based aquaculture company that aims to remove billions of CO2 metric tons from the atmosphere with a seaweed farm, will tokenize its yearly goal of one billion CO2 removal credits in a deal with blockchain marketplace JustCarbon.
Seafields plans to build a large-scale farm (94,000 sq km) off the coast of West Africa to grow, harvest, bail, and sink sargassum seaweed that can remove one billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year. According to the company, the farm will go operational in 2031.
The CO2 credits prices vary significantly and can go from $6 to $1,000. Much of the value of a credit is determined by its ‘additionality,’ or whether it brings additional benefits to biodiversity and social benefits like job security. The projected value of the agreement is $750 million to JustCarbon and is a first for a project in the new ocean blue CO2 industry.
Relevant: Norway Coast Experiment Aims To Test Seaweed’s CO2 Capture Potential
“Stopping ongoing carbon emissions isn’t enough. We also need to scrub existing pre-industrial CO2 fast,” said John Auckland, Seafields co-founder and director. “If hyper-scale projects like Seafields do not get the funding and investment needed, we will not meet the targets for the decarbonization of the globe and limiting global warming to 1.5 ⁰C.”
Sustainably growing sargassum will allow Seafields to use the available ocean space to meet the increasing demand for CO2 credits in the next 20 years, while at the same time removing billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere, Auckland also said. “When looking at the existing carbon credit market, our project is essentially unviable if we hand over too much of our margin to retailers and other intermediaries,” he said, adding that the partnership with JustCarbon will allow them to interface directly with carbon credit buyers to sell for a fair and stable price and build a predictable business model.
Seafields aims to be certified by a standards body at the beginning of 2024 and will start supplying its CO2 credits then. By 2031, the company aims to scale to the gigaton volume.
Read more: Marine Permaculture Wins $1M From XPRIZE On Scaling Restorative Seaweed Forests
