Latest news with #forestcarboncredit
Arab News
6 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistani province completes first forest carbon mapping, targets $4 billion in credit revenue
PESHAWAR: Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government on Thursday announced it had completed its first forest carbon credit mapping, saying that projects on over two million hectares of land can be used to generate $4 billion in revenue and create over 50,000 jobs. Carbon credits are permits that allow owners— governments or companies— to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases (GHGs). The United Nations allows polluting companies or countries to buy carbon credits to offset their emissions. These credits can be sold in international carbon markets. Forest carbon credit mapping refers to the process of using satellite images, drones, and data to measure the forest land of a particular area. This estimates how much carbon the trees in that given area are absorbing. This data is then used to identify areas where projects can be launched to earn carbon credits. A ceremony was held at the Chief Minister's House in Peshawar to mark the launch of KP's first Forest Carbon Credit Mapping Report, the chief minister's office said in a statement. The report was launched by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur. 'Through this mapping, done with the help of modern technology, ten potential projects covering 2.2 million hectares of forest land in the province have been identified,' the statement said. 'These projects can absorb more than 400 million tons of carbon,' the statement added. The report further said these projects can earn a revenue of $4 billion and create over 50,000 green jobs. Meanwhile, Gandapur said the mapping will serve as a 'comprehensive model' for the province's environmental, economic, and social development. 'The forest area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa makes up 46 percent of the country's total forested area,' Gandapur was quoted as saying in the statement. 'The forests of the province have the capacity to absorb 50 percent of the country's carbon.' The KP chief minister said the provincial government is expected to earn $100 million annually from carbon credits. He said the KP government is undertaking efforts to further increase the forest area of the province. Pakistan is consistently ranked as one of the world's worst-affected countries due to climate change. Monsoon rains in the country since June 26 alone have killed around 190 people and injured several others. Unusually heavy rains triggered flash floods in June 2022 that killed over 1,700 people and caused damages of over $33 billion, with large swathes of crops and critical infrastructure destroyed by raging currents.
Forbes
6 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
A New Carbon Credit Standard Brings New Hope To The Market
There has been controversy surrounding the forest carbon credit market. Some project developers have been seen as cheating the system by overreporting the amount of carbon sequestered, which allowed them to earn greater revenue from carbon credit sales. We take for granted that nations have to destroy their forests to develop, but carbon credits offer another way. Countries need money to build energy infrastructure, roads and bridges, fund hospitals and universities, and with programs funded by carbon credits, they can develop without destroying their countries. Carbon Credits offer alternative revenues to the government and local communities. This allows a country to develop without destroying its natural resources. Deforestation in Cambodia. Densely canopied forest is destroyed in the pursuit of economic ... More development. This is how carbon credits work: they are coupons that represent some amount of carbon that has been stored in a patch of forest. Corporations can buy these coupons to help them achieve their net-zero commitments. Governments of developing nations can sell carbon credits and earn revenues to develop sustainably. The forest carbon credit market has been heavily criticized, saying that corporations who buy carbon credits are only greenwashing their image. Some criticism has been fair. We acknowledge that there have been enough projects with flawed baselines to justify scrutiny from the press. Some project developers have applied the methodologies in a sloppy way, prompting heavy scrutiny. There have been enough examples of poor integrity in carbon accounting to have delegitimized the wider system in the eyes of many. This led to cynics believing that everyone was overstating how much carbon they actually sequestered. This is unfortunate because pragmatically, carbon credits are our best hope of preserving our remaining forests. The Amazon rainforest being cleared for soybean planting. Mato Grosso state in western Brazil, Oct. ... More 4, 2015 Up until now, there have only been a few accrediting firms in the carbon market. The limited selection of accrediting bureaus has made it such that when a bureau gets criticized, all the associated projects are tainted in the eyes of the carbon credit purchasers. Until now, Verra has maintained a de facto monopoly on the market, but a new firm has been announced and it will be accrediting projects by 2026. As a project developer, I'm very excited. We will have a new standard, Equitable Carbon Standard (ECS) and a new accrediting body, Equitable Earth, which lessens our dependence on Verra and gives more hope to carbon credit buyers. Equitable Earth has stricter requirements for counting carbon, and has a methodology that provides greater empowerment to Indigenous and local people. The new system aims to resolve the lack of trust that the corporate buyers have for project developers. There have been concerns that the amount of carbon being reported did not match the reality on the ground. Separately, there have been complaints that some projects have harmed local people by taking their land away. In the new standard, indigenous people will play a bigger role in project management and benefit sharing. Their elevated position in decision making will hopefully allay some of these anxieties about their wellbeing. Carbon credits are the best, pragmatic way to preserve the forests. Land conversion, clearing forests so that they can be replaced by agriculture, industrial development, or urban expansion, is the biggest driver of deforestation. Deforestation across the Tropical Belt as of 2022. Green shows remaining forests. Carbon Credits ... More offer developing nations a meaningful alternative to the deforest to develop trajectory. Compiled with data from various sources. Global climate commitments include ending deforestation by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. This won't be done by reducing emissions alone. Even with the emerging technologies and strategies that will lower the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere, we still need to absorb and sequester the balance to maintain net-zero emissions. Our forests, and the carbon credits that protect them, offer the most effective way to accomplish this imperative.
