The notion, as portrayed in headlines such as this (from a Wall Street Journal Article*) that carbon credits will not lower emissions is simply another way to obscure the positive impact carbon credits programs have accomplished.
Yes, it's true that the impact of a tiny and mostly voluntary tax - which is what carbon credits are currently - is unlikely to be a major influence on the behavior of many major emitters - especially compared to the income that could be made from the production of fossil fuels and emitting carbon. It's likely that the use of lower-cost renewables will over time have a greater effect over taxing carbon emissions.
Our emissions today are a major issue. To appreciate the importance of carbon credits, however we need to go beyond the Income Statement and examine our Balance Sheet. More specifically, our carbon debt over the long term.
If Planet Earth were to maintain the Balance Sheet, we were required to record on our Asset column our basic needs including food security, physical security, water availability etc... as well as then in our long Team entry for debt, the amounts of greenhouse gas, the extreme level of organic carbon in soil depletion from our farms and the awe-inspiring levels of degradation of the most efficient carbon storage areas - the coastal mangrove forests It is evident from any analysis of that balance sheet that our present situation is not the result of one year's emissions. If the balance sheet of a business were to reflect this statement, insolvency would surely be on the table.
So, any headline with carbon offsets is misleading. Climate change's problems are not only caused by carbon emissions but are traceable back to the past (or even hundreds of years). poor farming practices, mangrove removal, pollution and other errors are all part and parcel of the issue.
What's the extent of the damage to mangrove forests? Mangrove forests around the globe have seen a loss of between 50 percent and 65%. In many areas of the globe, agricultural land has been able to lose up to 80 percent of their organic soil carbon, to the point where food security could be at risk.
We need to shift our focus away from the "triple bottom line" and focus on accumulation of balance sheet debt. Instead of being a tax on our emissions in the present, think of carbon credits as an item of adjustment to the balance sheet. A credit (carbon) is a credit that could be used for the reduction of (carbon debt.
How can we cut down on the amount of debt?
The answer is quite straightforward Let's look at an illustration. CarbonNation BLUE, an initiative of the CarbonNation fund, was established to accomplish one task extremely simple and efficient to protect and restore mangroves. For mangroves to be sustainable, forests require a substantial amount of funding. A 15,000-hectare mangrove which needs to be planted will cost between USD2,500 and USD4,500 per hectare. The investment is paired with three years of meticulous cultivation in the local area.
Further, nearby onshore fisheries require to be supplied with more effective algae-based filters so that the nitrogen and the phosphorus waste that is produced are eliminated as well as the quality of produce is improved.
As the forest matures over the future years, and the algae plants begin to expand carbon credits will become available. These credits are a great investment return, along with an income on the principal, which is paid to community investors. What Visit website are the benefits? A greater mangrove cover can result in a higher quantity of fish. This is because mangroves protect fish from predators. Mangroves are among the main sources of income for a lot of coastal communities.
Greater protection against rising tides, coastal erosion is feasible with the presence of mangroves. As most people know already, mangroves can provide up to 50x better carbon sequestration rates than lower density forests. Although machines that extract carbon from the air and store it in underground storage look like they're from the future Mangroves have been doing the same thing for millions of years. Mangroves also supply us with food for the same time.
Although the fund has secured significant funding as well as other partnership agreements, more partners are encouraged to contact the fund.
The article is well-written and researched - my problem is with the negative and somewhat misleading tone of its headline that, in light of the text of the piece, I believe might be added or altered by the editor, rather than the journalist.