In Carbon Markets, the Name of the Game is Verification
By Chandler Van Voorhis
Managing Partner and Co-Founder of GreenTrees
More and more companies are embracing carbon credits to offset the greenhouse gas emissions they can’t eliminate on their own. To meet their corporate commitments to fight climate change, companies use nature-based credits to balance their total carbon footprint: then the company pays to protect trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the air; the company then claims the absorbed carbon dioxide as an offset that reduces its net impact on the climate.
Nature-based carbon credits — i.e., reforestation — are currently the only scalable technology for repairing the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. But recent news reports assert that forest-based carbon offsets might not actually be doing much for the climate. Not only is this categorically false, it brings into sharp relief the difference between high-quality offsets and those that aren’t. And that difference is defined by verification.
Organizations that issue carbon credits for forest projects follow an extensive protocol to ensure climate benefits. Enrolling a forestry project, like GreenTrees, on a credible carbon registry like the American Carbon Registry (ACR) represents an effective, legally binding and public-facing commitment to long-term carbon sequestration where it previously was absent. ACR oversees carbon project verification by independent, accredited auditors and issuance of serialized credits that are tracked on ACR’s registry. It is a tangible, firm and immediate action to increase and directly quantify carbon sequestration according to a scientifically-reviewed and published framework.
Each project registered with a carbon registry must exceed all currently effective laws and regulations, as well as common practice management of similar forests in the region, and each project must have faced at least one of three barriers — financial, technical, or institutional — to their implementation. Revenues from carbon offsets support reforestation, sustainable forest management and prevention of conversion of forests to non-forest uses. They also help ensure forests remain healthy and productive, and support efforts to acquire and conserve additional lands.
Each verification is conducted by an accredited verifier and typically takes 9–14 months to complete, including gathering and processing data and documentation in preparation for review by the verifier. As a programmatic aggregated project, a GreenTrees verification includes more than 10,000 documents, detailed data about several hundred plots of land and geospatial data for all 600+ GreenTrees landowners. This extensive timeline is due to the rigorous work required by the verification organization to meticulously review documents, calculations, and geospatial data and then apply the relevant standards and methodologies.
Verification of our program’s carbon credits begins with the measurement of landowners’ tree stands, following a rigorous field protocol and achieving or exceeding 90% confidence that the sample estimate falls within 10% of the true value, set by ACR. We review all documentation and ownership records of our landowners and also conduct an internal Quality Assurance/Quality Control process to ensure accuracy. Verifiers are approved by ACR and are accredited by several bodies including the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).
Once the lead verifier completes their report, another member of the verification organization performs a peer review assessment of the verification. Once the final Verification Report and Statement is co-signed by both the lead verifier and the peer reviewer, the report is then issued to ACR, who then conducts a final verification review, typically taking one to two months to complete. Once this fourth and final review is completed, ACR issues its verified Emission Reduction Tons (ERTs) to us. After these four levels of assurance and audit are performed, only then can we transact the ERTs.
Our GreenTrees program works with ACR, which has earned a reputation for strong standards and effective oversight. ACR’s program rules address key tenets of quality broadly recognized in the carbon market including additionality, baselines, accounting for leakage and mitigating the risk of reversals. All ACR methodologies have been vetted in a transparent manner, with input from leading experts and scientists through a public stakeholder consultation and blind scientific peer review.
Nature-based carbon credits represent an opportunity to remove significant quantities of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. The standards governing carbon credits should always be stringent and verifiable and be the result of both a peer review process and public consultation.
