Author: Blairmore-Manager

Carbon Farming

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What is Carbon Farming and How it Helps Reduce Emissions

Carbon farming is the process of adopting sustainable agricultural methods and land use techniques to increase the absorption of carbon in the soil, crops and crop roots, trees and leaves, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, soil, vegetation (avoidance).

Carbon farming focuses on techniques such as use of zero till agriculture or planting crop types that increases the ability of the soil to store, or sequester, more carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases), or ensure they stay trapped underground.

Agriculture, forestry and land use directly account for 18.4% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to Our World in Data. In the United States, the agriculture sector directly  contributes to 9% of total national emissions, while for Canada, the figure is 10%. 

Yearly emissions from crops and livestock and related land use, and share of agriculture in global GHG emissions from all sectors, 2000–2018. Source: FAOSTAT 2020.

Conversely, agriculture helps slow climate change by storing carbon on agricultural lands. The carbon that plants absorb from the atmosphere via photosynthesis gets absorbed into the soil and can remain there for centuries if not disturbed. However, while this may be possible in protected forests, not disturbing the soil at all is not an option on farmlands. However, but soil disturbance can certainly be reduced by adopting better tactics to manage the soil. For instance, minimal tillage, adopting practices such as cover crops or crop rotation, or leaving crop residues on the field help soils store more carbon.

“Carbon farming is the way forward to soak up excess CO2 and help reverse climate change for the betterment of the next generation,” says Jon Bradbury, Chief Financial Officer, CarbonTerra.

A 2017 study had found that nature-based climate solutions could provide up to one-third of the emissions reductions required under the Paris Accord. These include increasing carbon sequestration and reducing emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases through conservation, restoration, and improved management practices in forest, wetland, and grassland biomes.

“Greenhouse gases have been raising at an alarming rate that many of the countries have tried to implement protocols for reducing GHG emissions. Farmers, who already feed the world are in a unique position to offset this emission by farming best practices,” underlines Dr. Sivasathivel Kandasamy, Lead Data Scientist, CarbonTerra.

How farming leads to GHG emissions?

The main gases emitted by agricultural activities are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O).

Sources of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture (excluding CO2 emissions associated with energy use). Source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

These greenhouse gases differ in their ability to trap heat. While carbon dioxide is the most infamous of among the greenhouse gases, because of its prevalence in the atmosphere, methane is more than 20 times worse when it comes to trapping heat, nitrous oxide is about 300 times worse. For the purpose of standardization, emissions for methane and nitrious oxide are usually taken in terms of their carbon dioxide equivalents. For instance, methane is 20 CO2 equivalent (20CO2e) while nitrous oxide is 298 CO2 equivalent (298CO2e).

Since carbon is stored in the soil, any disturbance of the land or the roots of the vegetation, like tilling, leads to emissions. Further, many regular farming methods and activities also leads to emissions. For instance, carbon dioxide is mainly released through regular activities like burning of crops or organic matter, decay of plant and organic matter and insect and microbial activity in soils.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), global emissions due to agriculture (including related land use/land use change), were 9.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2018. Further, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from crop and livestock activities contributed 5.3 billion tonnes CO2 equivalent in 2018, an alarming growth of 14% since 2000.

Contribution of crops and livestock activities to total non-CO2 emissions from Agriculture. Source: FAOSTAT  2020.

Nitrous oxide is emitted directly from fertilizers and manure, decomposition of crop residue or cultivation of organic soils, while there can also be indirect nitrous oxide emissions from the re-deposition of ammonia and from nitrogen leaching. Nitrogen leaching happens when water content in the soil becomes greater than its water holding capacity and the excess water drains below the root zone carrying within it soluble nitrogen, mostly as nitrate.

Methane emissions in farming are usually from animal farming and decomposition of stored manure. When organic matter in feed or manure decomposes, a portion is released as methane.

How carbon farming can help reduce emissions?

Even though agriculture is a key contributor to carbon emissions, it is also one sector which has the potential to transform itself from a net carbon emitter to a net carbon absorber.

According to Jim Skea, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group III, “Agriculture, forestry and other types of land use account for 23% of human greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time natural land processes absorb carbon dioxide equivalent to almost a third of carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry.”

This is where carbon farming comes in. Carbon farming techniques can help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it for long periods of time in soil, microorganisms, and plant matter. IPCC found soil carbon sequestration has the ability to reduce CO2 at the lowest cost – USD 0 to USD 100 per ton – while estimating that this could remove between 2 and 5 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent per year by 2050.

Since agricultural soils can both emit or absorb carbon dioxide, the carbon credit of a farmland is determined by calculating the difference between the emissions to the atmosphere due to natural causes and various farming practices, and the net CO2 absorption by the same farmland, whether naturally or via adoption of sustainable farming techniques.

Carbon farming could be said to be successful when carbon storage resulting from such sustainable farming methods and land management exceed the amount of emission from the piece of land.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service under the United States Department of Agriculture has developed 35 conservation practices that improve soil health and sequester carbon while producing other important environmental co-benefits, including hydrological function, biodiversity, ecosystem resilience and productivity.

Some of the standard carbon farming that help sequester carbon include: 

How farmers benefit from carbon farming?

Adopting carbon farming typically involves a cost. It may be easy for commercial farm groups to quickly adopt such farming practices. However, as we noted in our previous blog, for an average farmer, adopting these practices are challenging in terms of costs and adoption. Such individual land owners and farmers need incentives to switch to integrated carbon sequestering techniques by giving up their age-old practices.

While this can happen via government policies, the agriculture sector is now viewing the carbon credit market as a great opportunity.

A carbon credit is a transferrable instrument certified by authorities representing an emission reduction of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2), or an equivalent amount of other GHGs, from the atmosphere.

So, when a farmer adopts carbon farming techniques and earns carbon credits on his farmland, he can sell these at a cost to a large corporation, say a power plant, which is looking to offset its emissions by buying carbon credits. For instance, Microsoft last year announced it would buy carbon offsets worth up to $2 million as part of its effort to become carbon negative by 2030.

The biggest buyers of carbon offsets are often the largest emitters, such power, oil or transportation companies. In fact, the carbon offset market is so lucrative that oil and gas giant Shell in 2020 acquired a carbon farming company in Australia, Select Carbon, to meet its 2050 net-zero ambitions.

“Carbon currency and crediting provide valuable instruments to sustain an economy that values carbon storage and sequestration in soils and biomass. Regenerative and smart agriculture offer avenues to create carbon neutral industries with farmland serving as carbon sinks,” Dr Sabine Grunwald, Professor, Pedometrics, Landscape Analysis & GIS Laboratory, and Soil and Water Sciences Department, IFAS, University of Florida.

The global voluntary carbon offsets market size was estimated to reach a record of USD 6.7 billion at the end of 2021, according to September 2021 report from Ecosystem Marketplace. The report also noted that year 2021 logged a new market value record of over USD 1 billion in voluntary carbon credit transactions.

Farmers are relatively new entrants to this booming carbon offset market.

Canada is already a global leader in “quantifying agricultural emissions reduction” with its carbon offset markets providing the “largest number of opportunities in the world for farmers to participate”, according to a statement from the Trade Commissioner in January 2022.

In July last year the Canadian government announced an investment of up to CAD 621,572 to develop an assurance system for farmers to produce and sell carbon offsets. The Canadian Forage and Grassland Association expects that more than 5,000 hectares of Canadian grasslands will be protected by land conservation agreements, and 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent will be saved through third-party verified carbon offset credits.

As various countries come up with various policies, the market will quickly evolve as corporate giants attempt to reduce their own carbon footprint by paying to farmers to offset their own carbon emissions. It’s a win-win for all

Can this be made into an infographic. something like this

https://www.shutterstock.com/search/10+point+info+graphic

Since my design skills are limited, I am not able to make one but think an infographic will look better than plain running text.

What are carbon offsets?

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What is carbon offset and how is it different from carbon credit?

The terms carbon offset and carbon offset credit (or simply carbon credit) are often used interchangeably, though technically they can mean slightly different things. A carbon offset broadly refers to a reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – or an increase in carbon storage via land restoration, forest conservation or sustainable agriculture. Carbon offset is used to compensate for emissions occurring elsewhere.

A carbon credit on the other hand represents an emission reduction of one metric tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2), or an equivalent amount of other GHGs, from the atmosphere. A carbon credit is a transferrable instrument certified by authorities — governments or other independent certification bodies. An emitter can purchase carbon credits to pay for their underlying GHG reduction goals.

“So a credit becomes tradable, like an offset, because of a very real reduction in emissions, but often times the reduction is from an activity you may not have thought of, like changing a business practice, flying less, turning off equipment at night, and so on,” according to Carbonfund.org.

So essentially, carbon credit stands for the right to emit a certain amount of carbon that they have paid for. If a company uses fewer credits than it has bought, it can trade and sell its credits to other parties who need it or keep for future offsetting.

To further simplify it in layman’s terms, you take a flight that generates certain carbon footprint. Now if you are a corporation or public institution looking to neutralize that carbon footprint, you may choose to:

  1. not take flights henceforth and switch some sustainable modes such as virtual meetings for your work; or
  2. purchase equivalent amount of carbon credits to neutralize the impact of your carbon footprint. These carbon credits are generated via third party sustainable projects, such forest conservation or sustainable farming like CarbonTerra’s initiative of partnering with farmers.

Carbon offset allows companies to balance out the climate impact they are causing by directly reducing the carbon footprint in their operations internally or paying for sustainable practices anywhere on Earth. In that way, carbon credit is a kind of carbon offset technique, but need not be from a carbon offset project. It can be from any third-party certified project that reduces or mitigates GHG emission anywhere on Earth.

The whole idea of carbon credit basically amounts to make the offenders pay for sustainable practices elsewhere. The bigger your carbon footprint, the more you pay for purchasing carbon credits to offset your negative impact. The money goes to sustainable practices like eco-friendly agriculture or growing forests.

And because GHGs, once they are emitted, mix in the atmosphere, and impact warming of the Earth as a whole, it does not matter where exactly they are reduced.

Carbon credits make it easier, practical and more cost-effective for organizations to continue with their businesses even while contributing to green practices and working towards mitigating climate change.

“The key concept is that offset credits are used to convey a net climate benefit from one entity to another,” according to Carbon Offset Guide, an initiative by the Carbon Offset Research and Education (CORE) initiative of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI). 

What are carbon credits and how do they work?

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A carbon credit is a permit that allows the company that holds it to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases. One credit permits the emission of a mass equal to one ton of carbon dioxide. – Investopedia

If that still sounds like a jargon, let’s try a simpler way – carbon credit is the generic term used for any certificate representing one ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) or any other greenhouse gas (GHG) removed from the atmosphere.  

Companies purchase carbon credits, also known as carbon currency, to offset the GHG emissions that are generated as part of their regular operations. In most cases, carbon credits are created through sustainable agricultural or forestry practices, though it can be generated in any project that actively reduces GHG emissions. Carbon credits can either be exchanged in a carbon market voluntarily or as part of a regulatory framework.

The carbon credit market is hot and growing. The voluntary market is on track to reach a record of USD 6.7 billion at the end of 2021, according to September 2021 report from Ecosystem Marketplace. The report also noted that year 2021 logged a new market value record of over USD 1 billion in voluntary carbon credit transactions.

“The carbon credit market is ready for a revolution. GHG reduction is now a pivotal global objective, and the carbon market has to be raised to the standards of modern financial institutions,” says Pavel Bordioug, Vice President, Tech Strategy, CarbonTerra, a farmer centric carbon credit aggregator focused on providing farmers with simple, effective, science based agronomic carbon farming solutions.

The whole idea of carbon credit basically amounts to make the offenders pay for sustainable practices elsewhere. The bigger your carbon footprint, the more you pay for purchasing carbon credits to offset your negative impact. The money goes to sustainable practices like eco-friendly agriculture or growing forests.

How Carbon Credit Works

Although it sounds very complicated, the concept of carbon credit is fairly simple.

Why carbon credits?

Our planet is on the brink today. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report, which was released on August 9, 2021, highlights that human influence has warmed the climate at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres had called the report as nothing less than “a code red for humanity. “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable,”

The report said in 2019, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher than at any time in at least 2 million years, and concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide were higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years.

As Year 2021 joined 2020 in top seven warmest years on record, experts agree we are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold, is by urgently stepping up our efforts in reducing global emissions.

Because carbon credit broadly refers to reduction in GHG emissions, it essentially amounts to increase in carbon storage, through land restoration, forest conservation, tree planting or even adoption of sustainable ways of farming, such as organic farming or less nitrogen in the soil etc., to compensate for emissions that occur elsewhere. A known emitter – whether an individual or an organization – looking to offset their carbon emission can purchase carbon credit to show towards their own GHG reduction goals. From Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos, Google to General Motors, major corporations have all been investing in carbon offset market to make up for their emissions.   

The concept of carbon credits seem to be getting more popular, especially as organizations and governments commit to massively reducing their emissions. Global spending on carbon offsets could increase from roughly $300 million in 2018 to as much as $100 billion by 2030, according to the Institute for International Finance’s Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets.

“Carbon currency and crediting provide valuable instruments to sustain an economy that values carbon storage and sequestration in soils and biomass. Regenerative and smart agriculture offer avenues to create carbon neutral industries with farmland serving as carbon sinks,” Dr Sabine Grunwald, Professor, Pedometrics, Landscape Analysis & GIS Laboratory, and Soil and Water Sciences Department, IFAS, University of Florida.

“Carbon economies that are data and science driven and apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) modeling technology will provide the foundation for sustainable and resilient futures that serve both the people and the land,” she adds.  

How does carbon credit work?

Amid the global clarion call for reducing GHG emissions, realists also understand it’s not possible and practical to switch off all machines of the world. Some of the practical ways to approach this crisis are:

  • Reducing emissions by cutting down on fossil fuel, particularly coal, and switching to clean, renewable resources such as solar or wind energy. For instance, Canada has an action plan to phase out coal-fired electricity by 2030. This includes investments of more than $185 million to support coal workers and their communities through the transition to cleaner energy.
  • Identifying GHG emission that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere. For instance, capturing methane leaks at landfills or industrial sites. Here too, Canada has shown a leading initiative as Canadian satellite company GHGSat’s multi-layered methane detection and monitoring services can pinpoint source emissions down to the individual facility level.
  • Carbon capture and storage (CCS) by conserving forests to lower emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Canada’s forestry sector is a CCS leader As a major forest nation, Canada is working to understand how today’s changing climate will affect the global carbon balance, the health of the country’s ecosystems and the flow of goods and services provided to Canadian society.
  • Lastly, adopting carbon capture and storage (CCS) via sustainable agriculture practices. Adoption of CCS technologies in agricultural sector, also known as carbon farming includes zero-till agriculture, cultivating specific crops, using organic fertilizer or regenerative cattle farming, which increases the ability of the soil to sequester CO2 and ensures it stays trapped within the ground.

Any organization – whether public or private – can invest in any of these initiatives to generate carbon credits and work towards reducing global emissions. In addition to conservation and forestry organizations, individual farmers and landowners practicing sustainable practices can sell carbon credits, which are managed by organizations – both private and public.

“Carbon farming is the way forward to soak up excess CO2 and reverse climate change for the betterment of the generation,” says Jon Bradbury, Chief Financial Officer, CarbonTerra.

“Greenhouse gases have been raising at alarming rate that many of the countries have tried to implement protocols for reducing GHG emissions. Farmers, who already feed the world are in a unique position to offset this emission by farming best practices,” underlines Dr. Sivasathivel Kandasamy, Lead Data Scientist, Carbon Terra.

“The key concept is that offset credits are used to convey a net climate benefit from one entity to another. Because GHGs mix globally in the atmosphere, it does not matter where exactly they are reduced,” according to Carbon Offset Guide, an initiative by the Carbon Offset Research and Education (CORE) initiative of the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI). 

It adds, from a climate change perspective, the effects are the same if an organization:

  1. ceases an emission-causing activity; or
  2. enables an equivalent emission-reducing activity somewhere else in the world.

Carbon credits naturally make it easier, practical and more cost-effective for organizations to pursue the second option, even while contributing to green practices and working towards mitigating climate change.

The role of CarbonTerra carbon credit market

CarbonTerra believes in maximizing the value earned through Agricultural Land Management practices that generate Pedigreed Carbon CreditsTM. Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada’s breadbasket, CarbonTerra’s uses cutting-edge technologies that integrate agronomy, science, and artificial intelligence to build a farmer-focused platform that earns farmers more money for their Carbon FarmingTM practices both currently and historically.

For an average farmer, adopting these practices are challenging in terms of costs and adoption, even as more and more farmers are increasingly understanding the concept, the benefits – for their businesses as well as from a holistic environment perspective – and becoming receptive to these technologies.

CarbonTerra works with farmers as partners, helping them to manage and navigate the complexity of sustainability in farming. A farmer has to simply visit the CarbonTerra website. There they get to select only the practices and protocols they want to adopt. CarbonTerra applies AI-driven quantification techniques to calculate how many credits their land is eligible to generate. They have the option to claim these credits, and even sell these on the CarbonTerra’s marketplace.

For calculating both future and historic carbon credits, CarbonTerra’s AtlasX platform uses blockchain technology to run the complex analysis. This ensures the transactions and transparent and immutable.

CarbonTerra uses research backed assessments to validate that carbon has been stored after taking into account all changes. These assessments are then validated by a third part assessor. Once the assessment has been validated it is publicly posted to a registry and tokens are created on the blockchain which correspond to the assessment. The blockchain itself actually stores the information from the assessment so that anyone in the world is able to confirm the validity of a credit. These tokens can then be sold to those looking to offset their carbon footprint and they can claim them by burning the tokens on the chain. This claiming process is also recorded and permanently stored. This creates a fully traceable, transparent and reliable system for managing the trading of carbon credits.

As Bradbury underlines, “In the same way Atlas was condemned to carry the weight of the World on his shoulder for leading a battle for control of the Heavens, the Atlas token symbolizes the struggle we all face to take back control of our climate by giving us a mechanism through which we can all achieve carbon neutrality.”