RESOURCES
The CO2eco team monitor carbon markets and the latest thinking on valuing nature-based services, as reflected in our blogs and the links provided here

Principled Carbon? Anticipating the ICVCM’s CCPs
Overpromising and under delivery of carbon offsets have underpinned the 20 year-long debate: can the voluntary carbon market tangibly contribute to net zero? Seeking to establish a global benchmark, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (IC-VCM) issued draft Core Carbon Principles [ref 1] for a public consultation run on its behalf by […]

TCFD – Sustainability’s Most Potent Acronym?
The call to arms on the climate crisis gets louder and louder for consumers, companies and governments. An alphabet soup of action groupings and regulatory bodies has emerged, but are they themselves doing enough? One of the most robust initiatives is the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), established by G20 Finance Ministers and […]

SBTi
The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) emerged in 2015 with the world’s first science-based certification. A coalition between CDP, UN Global Compact, World Resource Institute and WWF, the certification provides guidance for companies and financial institutions on how to best reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet global net-zero. However, does ambition meet […]

You can’t take the ‘S’ out of ESG: Case Study 1
Despite covering just 3 percent of the world’s land, peatlands store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests, (UNEP) demonstrating just how vital Peatland restoration is in our efforts to reach net-zero. Restoration, however, isn’t simply an effort to capture more carbon. Peatland degradation caused by drainage for agricultural, horticultural and energy production […]

How Nature and Climate Will Benefit from Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing
Monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of carbon captured by trees, crops, soils, hedgerows and other ‘nature assets’ requires effective technology. This is usually by earth observation from satellites where algorithms are used to convert the images obtained to leaf area index and biomass enabling authoritative information on the state of the nature asset and estimates […]

Carbon farming needs to come of age in 2022
In my work as a land agent, I deal with a variety of landowners and farmers across the UK. Much of this covers day to day land management matters, but inevitably the conversations move to what the future holds for the rural economy. Agriculture as a sector is unique in so far as being both […]

A tech-obsessed world needs to act fast
Imagine a not-too-distant future where humans have become a wholly urban species. Eleven billion of us crammed into mega-cities, divorced from a rewilded rural environment. Science fiction? Perhaps it’s not that far-fetched given the pace of change — our insatiable appetite for growth, our reliance on technology and our need to find solutions to ever-decreasing […]
Carbon Markets
Oxford Offsetting Principles
Sept 2020
1. Cut emissions, avoid emissions, and use high quality offsets.
Regularly revise offsetting strategy as best practice evolves
2. Shift to carbon removal offsetting
3. Shift to long-lived storage
4. Use long term, high-quality offsets, and support the development of net zero aligned markets
COP26 outcome: A guide to Article 6 by S&P Global Platts
17 Nov 2021
A summary guide to Nationally Defined Contributions,
Corresponding Adjustments and ITMOs, and the agenda towards COP27
The Role of Derivatives in Carbon Markets:
This paper describes the role of derivatives in carbon markets and reviews exchange-traded and over-the-counter (OTC) carbon derivatives. It also provides insights on compliance and voluntary carbon markets and explains how firms use these markets to meet their compliance obligations, achieve corporate social responsibility goals and manage risks.”
Nature Positive
An introduction to the business benefits of investing in Nature-based Solutions from CISL (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership) which includes:
— A definition of Nature-based Services (NbS)
— Corporate motivations for investing in NbS
— Examples from Kelloggs and others
— Summarises the challenges of embedding NbS in a corporate climate strategy
–The value of NbS alongside carbon credits