Introducing Symbiosis
IN A WORLD INCREASINGLY IMPACTED BY CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS (record ocean temperatures, increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists, high deforestation rates, etc.) here is some good news: Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce have pledged to contract up to 20M tons of high-quality nature restoration carbon credits by 2030, equivalent in volume to the 2030 carbon removal goals of the state of California. Symbiosis represents these companies’ ambition to catalyze the supply of the highest quality nature-based carbon removal projects, driving positive outcomes for the climate, nature, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities.
Limiting Earth’s temperature increase to less than two degrees celsius and avoiding the worst effects of climate change will require a concerted effort across the public and private sector. Corporations have a critical role to play in this effort, first and foremost, by reducing emissions from energy, transportation, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and other major sources of emissions both internally and within a company’s value chain.
But we also know we cannot meet our climate goals without also addressing nature conservation and restoration in this decade. Research shows that the planet is already absorbing a minimum of 7.6 gigatons each year - 1.5x the annual emissions of the United States - in its forests, wetlands, grasslands, and other ecosystems, and the latest UN IPCC report on climate change notes that ecosystem restoration projects could remove at least 3 gigatons more CO2 emissions annually by 2030. Protecting and restoring nature is one of the best, most readily available tools in our toolbox to fight climate change.
There’s an old saying that goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Science tells us we cannot wait to invest in nature restoration. Symbiosis aims to supercharge that necessary climate action now.
So…what exactly is Symbiosis?
Symbiosis is an advance market commitment or AMC. AMCs aim to incentivize the growth of innovative, supply-constrained public goods. They aggregate demand and signal to suppliers, “if you build it, we will buy it.” The first AMCs were linked to vaccine development and saw wild success—saving the lives of more than 700,000 people by some counts. The concept of an AMC soon spread to climate change mitigation. In 2021, the LEAF Coalition announced a $1B+ commitment to jurisdictional-scale forest protection and in 2022, Frontier Climate launched a similar effort for technology-based carbon removals. These efforts have already catalyzed hundreds of millions of dollars in new transactions, innovations, and investments for climate action. The LEAF Coalition announced a $60 million agreement with the governments of Ghana and Costa Rica for forest protection, and Frontier has already contracted for more than $228 million of carbon credits, making Frontier the third-largest buyer of technology-based removals globally.
Recent research by Carbon Direct with support from Meta highlighted that a “buyers club” around ecological restoration is one of the key ways to unlock quality and credibility around these types of projects. Symbiosis drew inspiration and lessons from Frontier, LEAF, and other AMCs to design their approach to the nature-based carbon removals market. Restoration projects today face similar barriers to scale that engineered carbon removals, jurisdictional forest carbon credits, and vaccines faced:
Limited supply within a nascent or non-existent market
Uncertainty about what buyers want and whether they will pay the real cost to develop those projects
Need for signed offtake agreements with creditworthy buyers to unlock the affordable financing needed to scale
Symbiosis intends to address these challenges by sending a strong demand signal and providing members with opportunities to purchase nature-based removals credits (inclusive of restoration, reforestation, agroforestry, mangroves, and more) that count towards their pledge through a joint request for proposal (RFP). This certainty around offtake will give project developers the clarity and access to low-cost capital needed to develop and scale these projects that are absolutely critical in order to make progress against global climate goals.
Putting quality first
Nature restoration projects are complex and challenging to get right. Symbiosis is determined to draw from the most current and rigorous science, build on the latest methodologies and standards including the work of the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), and solicit independent expert review and input to inform their work together.
Symbiosis led alignment among these companies on overarching quality pillars to guide the development of quality criteria specific to various project types. The five pillars - conservative accounting, durability, social and community benefits, ecological integrity, and transparency – provide a north star for the coalition’s efforts, regardless of whether the project focuses on reforestation, mangrove restoration or other project type.
Next, Symbiosis worked with experts from across academia, NGOs, industry, and elsewhere (including at the University of California Santa Cruz, University of the Sunshine Coast, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International - you can see the full list here) to develop specific quality criteria for its first area of focus: afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects, inclusive of agroforestry.
Most notably, Symbiosis decided to base its quality criteria on the principles of Verra’s forthcoming ABACUS label. The most conservative approach on the market for ARR projects, ABACUS incorporates the latest innovations in carbon accounting, including dynamic baselining, robust approaches to leakage mitigation, and pathways for creating durable projects. In addition, Symbiosis led alignment on criteria that emphasize financial transparency, require equitable engagement and distribution of benefits to Indigenous Peoples and local communities throughout the project life cycle, and encourage net positive outcomes for biodiversity.
Symbiosis acknowledges that science and technology evolve, and our best intentions and risk-mitigating strategies can sometimes go awry. The Coalition will work with independent experts (check out who provided input to our ARR quality criteria) to continually update our quality criteria as science and data advances and to transparently share lessons learned along the way. To that end, Symbiosis will establish a technical advisory board made up of independent experts to regularly review and update its quality criteria, explore ways to monitor project progress after contracting, and inform the development of new quality criteria for other project types.
Translating commitment into action
It’s not enough to clarify the quality buyers want. Project developers need confidence that buyers will reward them for the time, effort, and cost to incorporate the latest methodologies, integrate new measurement approaches, make conservative assumptions, invest in best practices for ensuring environmental co-benefits, and engage and compensate Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Symbiosis recognizes that developing projects that meet these standards for quality and take a more conservative approach to carbon accounting will cost more than projects that do not, and are willing to pay the real cost for these projects.
The Symbiosis joint RFP process will make it easier for project developers to access multiple buyers at once and secure signed offtake agreements that can lead to lower-cost financing. Symbiosis will work to educate project investors on its quality standard and offtake agreements with the aim of de-risking Symbiosis projects, enabling investors to provide a capital stack that is better suited to the lifecycle and returns of nature-based projects.
Symbiosis plans to issue its first RFP later this year, which will focus on afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation projects, inclusive of agroforestry. Keep an eye out on our RFP page for more information about the process and project eligibility.
Working together for impact
We acknowledge that Symbiosis is only one piece of the broader puzzle needed to catalyze high-quality restoration at scale. Project developers need signed offtake, but they also need early-stage funding, project finance, and technical capacity building support.
We look forward to collaborating with NGOs, investors, project developers, standard setters, funders, buyers, and others already doing great work in this space to complement existing efforts, including connecting project developers who engage with Symbiosis to known, early-stage project development resources and investors. We intend to share and exchange lessons learned to advance consistent and unified market standards, enabling the overall market to scale.
Join us on our journey
Whether you’re a project developer looking for a forward-thinking offtake partner, a company exploring ways to engage in nature restoration, or a like minded stakeholder wondering how you can support, head over to our contact us page and drop us a line. Together, we can ensure nature restoration lives up to its critical role in the fight against climate change.
It takes a village
We wanted to give special shout-outs to individuals and organizations who were particularly helpful in inspiring Symbiosis and getting it off the ground.
ZOMALAB provided the funding for the human power to get Symbiosis from idea to reality.
Pachama (especially Dick Cameron and Natalie Urban) and Carbon Direct (especially Dr. Matthew Potts and Dr. Sarah Federman) provided technical input and expertise throughout the development of Symbiosis.
Nan Ransohoff, Hannah Bebbington, and Ryan Orbuch shared their wisdom and lessons learned from launching Frontier.
Kim Carnahan shared her wisdom and lessons learned from launching and running the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA).
Eron Bloomgarten shared his thoughts on launching and running LEAF and ways to approach Symbiosis.
Diego Saez-Gil sparked the first discussion on Symbiosis then let philanthropy support its development and cheered from the sidelines.
Amazon (especially Jamey Mulligan, Alex Rudee, and Kyle Hemes) educated Coalition members on Verra’s ABACUS label and contributed significantly to the development of the quality criteria.
Brian McPeek provided guidance and support to the founding team on launching complicated, multi-stakeholder initiatives.
Braeden Mayer was the right-hand man for getting Symbiosis off the ground.
Alexia Kelly provided her nature-based solutions, market standards, and corporate carbon procurement expertise and advice.