The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) suffers from a price level for certificates that went down to almost zero in a period less than a year. Additionally, no short-term price recovery is expected which could incentivise new projects. A risk is that market participants leave the market and the valuable CDM knowledge base on GHG mitigation and quantification will be lost. The CDM Market Support Study analyses the actual price vulnerability of projects and identifies various financing and project type opportunities for project developers and for (institutional public) investors who intent to support the CDM project continuation and the further development of the CDM framework. The study also shows how the current regulatory framework of the CDM can be maintained by transferring it to future mechanisms. This could be a chance to develop the CDM from a pure market-based instrument towards an integrated part within future market-based and also policy-based instruments. The CDM can provide useful components to currently discussed or tested instruments such as the NMM (New Market Mechanism), the FVA (Framework for Varios Approaches), NAMAs (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) or results-based financing approaches. The study was financed by the German KfW-managed PoA Support Centre . The aim of the PoA-Support-Centre Germany is to support the development of Programmes of Activities (PoAs) under CDM and JI (Joint Implementation) worldwide.
tozero is committed to its mission to truly bring lithium-ion battery waste to zero. With its novel hydrometallurgical (i.e. wet chemical)battery recycling approach, it can maximize the recovery of critical raw materials (lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite)from both lithium-ion batteries that have reached their end of life, and scrap created during the production of new batteries.Proven on a daily basis in an operational pilot plant (commissioned in July 2023) close to Munich, Germany, tozero already now fulfillsthe recovery rates for critical raw materials from lithium-ion battery waste required by the recently enforced EU Battery Directive for2027 and 2031 and established itself as one of the leading battery recycling startups in Europe. In addition, the use of less aggressivechemicals than competitors and a mostly closed circular production process reduces the carbon footprint for batteries using tozero’srecycled material compared to batteries using mined materials by up to 80%.Considering an initial pre-seed funding of EUR 3.5mn in 2022, receiving the EIC grant would allow to significantly accelerate tozero´sscale up to industry-scale commercialization and bridge the gap for the next funding round. First, this includes additional funds fromthe EIC for the purchasing and in-house optimization of chemical reactors tailored to the innovative hydrometallurgical process oftozero. Second, it allows us to largely automate our processing and prepare for industry-scale processing. Third, it supports in thecreation of a full lifecycle assessment that is required to officially accredit our CO2e savings and helps to identify the largest lever tofurther reduce our environmental footprint. All three aspects combined allow to reach an industrial scale proof of our operations andunlock a large equity financing round in 2026.