Carbon Offeset and how to explain something easy, where there is nothing ease

How to explain something easy, where there is nothing ease? Explaining carbon offsets is incredibly challenging, and, in a way, there are some valuable efforts…

John Oliver’s show served three highly appreciated purposes for Carbon Market sector:

## Three main highlights:

1. Raising Awareness but dont scare about it
2. Driving interest into learning more about it
3. Breaking down the topic to simplify it in a way for people to be able to digest it

The first two are valuable because carbon offsets and the activities from which they most commonly derive (#forestconservation, #reforestation, #regenerativeagriculture, etc) must become priorities for companies and individuals if we want to make real progress on both reducing and removing CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.

On the third point, although John Oliver highlighted a lot of actual flaws and gaps in the market, he also stated many generalizations and inaccuracies that are harmful to climate action and which have triggered a lot of reactions from the industry.

I’ll mention three that I particularly enjoyed reading and recommend:

1. Diego Saez Gil from Pachama shared a positive message on how companies in this space are working on and delivering high-tech solutions to ensure carbon offsets from reforestation and conservation can be increasingly measured and verified https://lnkd.in/eUTEjdaG
2. Southpole’s Nicholas Aster delivers a compelling argument that dismissing the whole approach just because it is not perfect is dangerous. https://lnkd.in/eQ7GjgKA
3. Verra wrote in response to the show: “Nobody claims the current voluntary carbon market is perfect, but it provides a framework for channeling much needed finance to solutions that reduce emissions and support communities.” https://lnkd.in/ehHP-KMv

All in all, much work remains ahead but a lot of it is already underway to bring more rigour to claims around net zero and offsetting in particular (without forgetting emissions reductions first!). Constructive criticisms and innovation are required, but as my colleagues said: nature can’t wait! So let’s get on with achieving this mission together - we’re certainly humbled but also motivated by this journey at Reforestum and we’ll keep working hard to identify and support great projects that conserve and restore nature.

Q: What is a project’s “baseline” and how is it determined?

A: A baseline refers to how the land would be managed if the carbon project were not happening. To become a nature-based carbon project, there must be an opportunity to reduce emissions on the land by a change in how the land is being managed. If other land uses are not a concern because of legal protection, or because aggressive harvests or development are not an economic possibility in the region, then the project cannot be approved for carbon.

Our projects typically involve thousands of acres, and this same evaluation is applied within a property. If there is a section of the property that is determined to be too difficult to access or too far away from harvest infrastructure, then that area is not counted towards a property’s credits. This is all evaluated through regional economic assessments, aerial and satellite surveys, and through many conversations with the local community. These conversations are a critical part of understanding the pressures on an area.