Carbon

The Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) is the quality assurance standard for woodland creation projects in the UK and generates independently verified carbon units. It is backed by the Government, the forest industry and carbon market experts, the Code is unique in providing woodland carbon units right here in the UK. The Woodland Carbon Code is internationally recognised for high standards of sustainable forest management and carbon management and is endorsed by ICROA, the global umbrella body for carbon reduction and offset providers in the voluntary market. Woodland Carbon Code projects provide social and environmental benefits for many communities across the UK.  These include biodiversity and habitat creation, improvements in health and wellbeing, benefits for farming, local employment, and educational opportunities.

The code allows carbon sequestration to be verified and validated with accuracy and integrity and gives piece of mind to sellers and buyers. Measured and marketed in tonnes of CO2 equivalent the Woodland Carbon Unit (WCU ) is already sequestered and guaranteed while the Pending Issuance Unit (PIU) is effectively a ‘promise to deliver’ a Woodland Carbon Unit in future, based on predicted sequestration, the PIU is not guaranteed and because of this the WCU is often preferred.

The Peatland Code is a voluntary certification standard for UK peatland projects wishing to market the climate benefits of peatland restoration and provides assurances to voluntary carbon market buyers that the climate benefits being sold are real, quantifiable, additional and permanent. 

Peatlands are naturally waterlogged systems. This slows down decomposition and enables plant remains, containing carbon removed from the atmosphere by photosynthesis, to be laid down as peat. As a result, accumulate carbon, as peat, at a rate of 1mm a year. It is this long-term carbon storage that sets peatlands apart from other ecosystems and makes it so special

The majority of the UK’s peatlands are in decline and are no longer sequestering and storing carbon. Preventing further damage and restoring healthy ecosystem function on peatland will play an important role in mitigating and reversing climate change. The Peatland Code sets out a series of best practice requirements including a standard method for quantification of GHG benefit. Independent validation to this standard provides assurance and clarity for buyers with regards the quantity, quality of emissions reductions purchased. Recognising that carbon benefits arise for many years after the initial restoration activities are implemented, the Peatland Code also ensures the carbon benefit will be regularly measured and monitored over the lifetime of the project (minimum 30 years). Buyers can be confident in purchasing peatland carbon units upfront, enabling the restoration project to take place. 

Funding obtained from the sale of climate benefit can sit alongside traditional public sources of funding, providing cost effective peatland restoration and ensuring management and maintenance of restoration projects over the long term.

The Peatland Code is currently designed to attract private purchases motivated by corporate social responsibility. The funding received from the sale of carbon benefit will depend on the extent of damage prior to restoration, the size of the project and the length of the management agreement.

The wider associated ecosystem service benefits of restoration (improvement in biodiversity, cleaner water, water flow management) may also become a unique selling point of the project.

The Peatland Code works for everyone involved:

• Carbon buyers have reassurance that they have facilitated a responsible scheme, which will result in additional climate benefits
• Projects have recognised procedures and standards to work to, and can use their validated/verified status to market the carbon benefits to potential buyers
• Society will benefit from enhanced climate mitigation and the restoration of the natural landscape

Hedgerow Carbon Code

A project to unlock the environmental potential of hedgerows has been given the go-ahead with a government grant of £81,561. The scheme, being developed by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) at its demonstration farm, the Allerton Project, will develop a Hedgerow Carbon Code, which will encourage hedgerow habitat improvements and provide a tool to calculate the carbon capture potential of hedgerows. The project is one of just 27 to receive funds from the £10 million Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund.

Hedgerows can sequester carbon at twice the rate of woodland and England's hedges already store 9m tonnes of carbon. The proposed Hedgerow Carbon Code will provide an innovative new approach to hedgerows. Similar to the Woodland Carbon Code, the new code will become the quality assurance standard for hedgerows and aims to generate independently verified hedgerow carbon credits.

The code will include a tool to enable the carbon stored in a hedge to be calculated and verified, incentivising land managers to plant and manage hedgerows – an important part of the government’s new Sustainable Farming Incentive as well as allow monitoring of hedgerow biodiversity for calculating biodiversity credits.

UK Farm Soil Carbon Codes

A code in development looking to contain the following:-

The UK Farm Soil Carbon Code will consist of a set of formal protocols that allow farmers to quantify and verify reduced greenhouse gas emissions and/or soil carbon capture as a result of adopting regenerative farming practices.

The Code will be free to use and open access to all farmers.  It will be straightforward, practical, affordable, accessible, and achievable.  It will be outcome-based, not practice-based.

The Code will be applicable for different ‘carbon accounting’ purposes - offset registries, carbon insetters, carbon capture incentive schemes, ecosystem services and environmental investment products - whether carbon capture will be monetised or not.

Our trading page allows you to register your interest in acquiring or providing carbon offsets.