Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) has assessed the World Bank’s new methodology for estimating the emission reductions resulting from adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.
The new methodology was approved under the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and is based on the Western Kenya Smallholder Agriculture Carbon Finance project.
A study published in Nature Climate Change this week measured both the biomass of different types of tropical forests and the emissions lost via deforestation, providing more accurate data than was previously available, according to lead author Alessandro Baccini. That’s important for creating confidence in nascent carbon markets.
The lush vegetation wrapping the center of the globe is one of the most important features for regulating a stable climate in the world. Much excess CO2 emissions from industrialized regions find their way to the equator to be absorbed by abundant CO2-consuming plant life. However, as large tracts of tropical rainforest are cut down in the Amazon, Congo, and Southeast Asia, worries have grown that this vital region may turn from a carbon sink to a carbon source. Those worries can be put at ease somewhat thanks to a recent study from the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC).
Some of our clients will remember that The CarbonNeutral Company started business in 1997 trading as Future Forests, and will know that our services have always recognised the central role played by ecosystems in maintaining a stable climate. Planting and protecting forests makes perfect sense because “trees suck up carbon dioxide and turn it into wood and oxygen”. However, 15 to 20 per cent of global carbon emissions still arise from deforestation.
Firms that emit greenhouse gases but also want to help revitalize business in the Tohoku region following the Great East Japan Earthquake are being drawn to participate in a carbon dioxide offset trading scheme.
Named J-VER (Japan Verified Emission Reduction), the scheme is a type of carbon-offset program.
Under the scheme, entities practicing silviculture through thinning, planting and other means can enter a certification process to claim credits, depending on how much carbon dioxide their forests absorb.
What a year it’s been for those involved in carbon markets. A raft of new legislation, a jump followed by a dramatic drop-off in carbon pricing and then a slow-down in trading. The roller coaster ride has caused plenty of angst for those foresters, emitters and investors with an interest in carbon forestry. Carbon markets, both in Australasia and internationally, have changed dramatically in just 12 months.
China has lowered the minimum price foreign companies must pay for Chinese carbon credits for the first time since 2008, but traders say the move is unlikely to have much impact as it will remain twice as high as current carbon prices. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the agency in charge of China’s participation in the international carbon market, has cut the floor price for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) credits by 1 euro to 7 euros ($8.92) in response to EU and U.N. carbon prices hitting record lows, several sources told Point Carbon News.
ociete Generale on Tuesday lowered its price forecasts for European Union and U.N.-backed carbon, citing an over-supply of emission units, a worsening EU economic outlook and an expansion of low-carbon energy sources. Front-year EU Allowances (EUAs) would average 8.9 euros ($11.28) a tonne in 2012, down 28 percent from its previous estimate in November, the Paris-based bank said in a research report. It does not expect EUAs, the price for a tonne of carbon dioxide emissions in the 27-nation bloc’s emissions trading scheme, to rise above 15 euros a tonne before 2020.
The Amazon rainforest is in flux, thanks to agricultural expansion and climate change. In other words, humans have "become important agents of disturbance in the Amazon Basin," as an international consortium of scientists wrote in a review of the state of the science on the world's largest rainforest published in Nature on January 19.
