Tag: sequestration

Press Release: Supporting accurate measurement of soil carbon

Posted on February 9, 2023 by - News

Publication of information resource on remote sensing and probe based technologies for farmers seeking to enter the voluntary carbon market.

Farm Carbon Toolkit (FCT) has published information to assist landowners and farmers when choosing how to monitor their soil carbon stocks. FCT is announcing the release of a document that breaks down the methodology and verification of some of the major remote sensing and probes based technologies that offer soil carbon quantification services. 

Many farm businesses are starting to look at baselining carbon storage on their farms. Where they are looking to enter voluntary carbon markets it is necessary to do this baselining accurately. For these businesses the costs associated with baselining soil carbon levels can be prohibitive. Responding to this cost barrier, a number of remote sensing  and novel technologies are coming onto the market. However it can be very difficult for businesses to know which technology to go with and indeed what level of accuracy is required. 

Farm Carbon Toolkit’s document reviews some of the major remote sensing and probe based technologies that are delivering soil carbon quantification services by describing the methodology and detailing any verification process the organisation has undertaken. The aim is to help farmers to make more informed decisions should they wish to measure soil carbon storage and engage in the voluntary carbon market. 

This 18 page document is set within the context of the release of the new minimum standards for the UK Soil Carbon Code, which is aligned with the Peatland Code and UK Woodland Carbon Codes. These codes set out the minimum standards for monitoring and measuring carbon stocks within peatlands, woodlands and soils which should be adhered to when entering the voluntary carbon market. 

The report can be found here.

Notes for editors:

About the Farm Carbon Toolkit

Farm Carbon Toolkit is an independent, farmer-led Community Interest Company, supporting farmers to measure, understand and act on their greenhouse gas emissions, while improving their business resilience for the future.

For over a decade, Farm Carbon Toolkit has delivered a range of practical projects, tools and services that have inspired real action on the ground. Organisations they work with include the Duchy of Cornwall, First Milk, Tesco, Yeo Valley and WWF.  Their Farm Carbon Calculator is a leading on-farm carbon audit tool, used by over seven thousand farmers in the UK and beyond. To find out more visit www.farmcarbontoolkit.org.uk

FCT and Yeo Valley at Countryside COP2

Posted on November 10, 2022 by - News

On the 10th October Farm Carbon Toolkit’s Becky Willson and Liz Bowles co-led an event kindly hosted at Yeo Valley Organic Garden as part of the second Countryside COP (CCOP2).

Countryside COP is a hybrid conference held to align with COP to create space for the agricultural sector and rural economies to push ahead on climate change and sustainability. It was established to allow rural communities to come together and illustrate the opportunities that are available, along with contributions that are already underway to reach net zero. The event is also an opportunity to explore adaptation options, something of increasing importance as our weather patterns become more extreme, as seen so starkly seen this year. 

The first Countryside COP was set up in 2021 by the Agriculture & Land Use Alliance (formerly Greenhouse Gas Action Plan GHGAP). Organisations in the Alliance include:

  • ADAS
  • Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA)
  • Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)
  • Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
  • Country Land & Business Association (CLA)
  • Linking Environment & Farming (LEAF)
  • NIAB
  • National Farmers Union (NFU)

In an NFU article leading up to Countryside COP1 the Alliance said

“This journey is complex, but there is no shortage of professionalism and knowledge within the rural community, and all who support food and farming. This is the time to utilise and invest in this expertise so we can help contribute to the government’s net-zero target, all while continuing to produce fantastic, affordable food for people at home and abroad”.

This year Farm Carbon Toolkit was one of a range of organisations including universities and farming bodies contributing to CCOP2. Through a plethora of 15 events running from the 10th-14th October all across the UK CCOP2 speakers were hosted from as far afield as Australia, Ghana and Zambia.

At Farm Carbon Toolkit we teamed up with our project partners at Yeo Valley who kindly hosted us, to talk about making the transition towards regenerative agriculture and about the findings so far in the project. The event was attended by a range of participants including farmers, education providers, NGOs and the general public. 

FCT’s event on ‘Soil Health and Water Security’ discussed the benefits that agroforestry can bring to grassland systems. It was demonstrated that the presence of trees can buffer extreme weather conditions such as the drought experienced this summer by supporting grass growth and therefore livestock performance, as it has done at Yeo Valley. Agroforestry can enable soils to retain more moisture, limiting the impacts of both droughts and flooding, so has a direct climate change mitigation potential.

Other findings demonstrated at the event included discussing how research carried out with Yeo Valley farmers has suggested that soil management practices, such as growing herbal leys, can increase soil carbon deposition below 10cm. The amount of carbon this is sequestering due to the range of practice uptake on trial sites is significant – it demonstrates a carbon stock improvement of between 20-40t/c/ha.

The event also showcased how significant discussions and events like this one can be in improving carbon literacy amongst attendees, crucial in moving forward together.

To read more about the other events in the series and the insightful recommendations that came from them please see here.

The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions – new paper released

Posted on April 6, 2020 by - Insights

A new paper has been released in Nature Sustainability this month which highlights the potential for soil carbon sequestration as a climate solution. You can access the full paper here. The abstract is below.

Mitigating climate change requires clean energy and the removal of atmospheric carbon. Building soil carbon is an appealing way to increase carbon sinks and reduce emissions owing to the associated benefits to agriculture. However, the practical implementation of soil carbon climate strategies lags behind the potential, partly because we lack clarity around the magnitude of opportunity and how to capitalize on it. Here we quantify the role of soil carbon in natural (land-based) climate solutions and review some of the project design mechanisms available to tap into the potential. We show that soil carbon represents 25% of the potential of natural climate solutions (total potential, 23.8 Gt of CO2-equivalent per year), of which 40% is protection of existing soil carbon and 60% is rebuilding depleted stocks.

Soil carbon comprises 9% of the mitigation potential of forests, 72% for wetlands and 47% for agriculture and grasslands.

Soil carbon is important to land-based efforts to prevent carbon emissions, remove atmospheric carbon dioxide and deliver ecosystem services in addition to climate mitigation.

US carbon trading platform looks at how soil carbon can be included as a tradeable asset

Posted on February 8, 2020 by - News

Reblog from: Successful Farming Magazine

Measuring soil carbon is key for farmers to be paid for sequestering carbon.

Agriculture can play a huge role in sequestering carbon and decreasing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Up to now, though, there has been little financial incentive for farmers to do so, due to the inability to measure carbon in the soil. That’s changing, though. Last June, Indigo Ag announced its Terraton Initiative that aims to pay farmers for carbon sequestration. In the following article, Ed Smith, vice president of Indigo Carbon and Terraton, and Dan Harburg, senior director of systems innovation for Indigo, discuss Indigo Ag’s partnerships with the carbon registries developed by Verra and the Climate Action Reserve.  

Agricultural soil carbon sequestration and emissions reductions can be immediate and affordable levers in addressing climate change. That’s what’s suggested by the climate plans from the top U.S. presidential candidates, consideration at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and what’s being featured prominently in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s land use report. However, this hinges on the precise and verified measurements of soil carbon and net greenhouse gas emissions from the farm. 

Verra and the Climate Action Reserve, both of which manage leading GHG crediting programs, are leading players in this space, playing a pivotal role in ensuring the highest standards when it comes to carbon measurement and accounting. This is why Indigo is launching partnerships with both groups, in different capacities, to enable the world to pay farmers for addressing climate change.

“As impacts of climate change have become more intense for communities around the world, farmers have experienced and suffered on the front lines,” says Craig Ebert, CEO of the Climate Action Reserve. “We have an opportunity, though, for them to play a critical role in solutions that significantly address the climate crisis and improve the health of their lands. For that opportunity to be successful, we need a strong, collaborative effort backing it. We need the farmers’ expertise, scientists’ research, data from other sector participants, and rigorous standards to guide the way.”

Measuring Carbon is Key 
Today, there is no practical way for a farmer to earn carbon credits. While some protocols do exist, they are either too costly to be adopted, or not rigorous enough to be valuable. As a result, almost none of the tens of billions of dollars of carbon credits that are purchased each year go to farmers. Vast potential carbon sink that lies in agricultural soils remains untapped. The key to unlocking this potential and connecting farmers to carbon markets is the ability to measure and verify carbon accurately and affordably.

In its work with Verra, the Climate Action Reserve, and the scientific community, Indigo is developing protocols to quantify, monitor, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions reductions on farms and carbon sequestration within soils to address this gap. Measuring net greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture will also shed light on how the industry can impact the arc of climate change and provide market confidence by ensuring rigor and transparency in the generation of these carbon credits.

“Agricultural soils offer us one of the most promising opportunities for drawing down carbon dioxide,” says University of California-Berkeley professor Daniel Kammen, former science envoy for the U.S. Department of State. “The technology exists for us to accurately track increases in soil carbon across millions of acres so that we can invest in farmers, invest in carbon drawdown, and do so verifiably and honestly.”

Indigo is supporting the development of the Soil Enrichment Project Protocol with the Climate Action Reserve. By the end of January, the Climate Action Reserve will form a working group consisting of industry representatives, project developers, farmers, environmental NGOs, verification bodies, researchers, and government bodies. This is the first critical step in running an open, transparent process informed by expert perspectives. After the working group completes a draft protocol, there will also be a period for public comment, ensuring the Climate Action Reserve receives feedback from all constituents. This protocol, expected to be finalized in mid-2020, will be accessible by any carbon credit project developer, and will accelerate the development and growth of agricultural carbon markets.

Given the interest and global applicability of agriculture as a lever in addressing climate change, Indigo is also partnering with Verra through its rigorous protocol development and review process on a similar timeline. 

“Verra is looking forward to working with Indigo Ag and other leading players to build on the VCS’s preeminent land-based carbon accounting and crediting platform and enable accounting of soil carbon in a robust yet scalable way, and linking such efforts with market mechanisms to drive major investment into regenerative and climate-smart agricultural practices in the U.S. and around the world,”.

David Antonioli, CEO of Verra

“Partnership, collaboration, and transparency are essential to developing high-caliber quantification programs. These carbon protocols will allow us to understand agriculture’s ultimate potential to address climate change, bring dependable credits to both farmers and buyers, and rally other constituents around this opportunity. Indigo is excited to partner with Verra and the Climate Action Reserve, and we are encouraged by other efforts in this space. Farmers have the potential to impact the course of our climate trajectory – and turn discussion into action.”