Catalyzing investment in nature-based solutions to draw down atmospheric carbon

Given the upward trajectory of global greenhouse gas emissions, massively scaling up carbon removals from the atmosphere will be critical to establishing a sustainable climate. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) could contribute up to one third of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed by 2030¹, yet these opportunities currently only receive a fraction of global climate finance and little of that is focused on sequestration activities. This lack of investment shortchanges the proven ability of NBS -- including regenerative agriculture, blue carbon, and forest restoration -- to draw down carbon and deliver compelling sustainable development benefits, including conserving biodiversity and supporting sustainable livelihoods.

Through market-leading standards and programs -- including the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards, and the newly released Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard (SD VISta) -- Verra supports a broad portfolio of projects that deliver verified NBS impacts. VCS NBS projects have so far issued 183 million Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). Each of these VCUs represent one tonne of CO2e benefits. Out of this total, 154 million VCUs are from Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), 18 million are from Wetland Restoration and Conservation (WRC), and 11 million are from Afforestation, Reforestation and Revegetation (ARR) activities, across a total of 200 projects. Of these, 121 million VCUs are also certified to the CCB Standards, which simultaneously verify local community and biodiversity benefits. In contrast, Agricultural Land Management (ALM) projects have issued under 0.5 million VCUs. The large discrepancy in VCUs issuances between project types points to barriers that need to be addressed in order to scale up implementation of critically important, but currently marginalized, NBS activities.

In late 2019, Verra assembled a set of multi-stakeholder working groups in response to the need for increased investment in NBS. These groups are composed of leading experts and practitioners in the NBS space; and were created to identify barriers to and opportunities for scaling up NBS activities. To date, Blue Carbon and ALM working groups have been established. A third ARR working group will be launched shortly.

The Potential of Regenerative Agriculture

In the ALM sector, seven methodologies have been approved under the VCS, spanning grassland management, fertilizer reduction, soil carbon quantification, sustainable agriculture practices and methane emissions from feed. These methodologies are being used by a variety of projects around the world.

The ALM working group is helping identify and advance the most promising opportunities for innovating around our standards and related tools to catalyze widespread adoption of climate-friendly agricultural practices.

In the case of regenerative agriculture -- where soil organic carbon (SOC) harbors the potential to contribute up to 25% annually of global NBS contributions² -- the working groups identified a range of key challenges including:

• High costs associated with soil sample collection and SOC measurement;
• Data constraints to validate biogeochemical models used in estimating SOC stocks;
•  Multi-year time lags in SOC accrual resulting in delayed issuance of VCUs; and
•  Cultural and land tenure barriers to adoption of regenerative agricultural practices by land managers.

In response, Verra is considering targeted updates to the VCS Program that would streamline SOC quantification approaches, incentivize data sharing, and adjust rules related to permanence, project crediting periods, and longevity. These updates would, for example, allow for increased flexibility in the use of models to quantify SOC stock changes across large geographic scales and better fit carbon project terms to farmers’ timeframes for decision-making on farmland management.

Similarly, Verra will be tapping our working groups and other stakeholder input on Blue Carbon, and soon Afforestation and Reforestation, to identify and advance standards-related innovations that could help unlock the full potential of NBS to draw down atmospheric carbon. We welcome input from individuals working on the above issues and look forward to sharing our updates and work plan with interested parties.

REFERENCE #1: Griscom, Bronson W., et al. "Natural climate solutions." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114.44 (2017): 11645-11650. https://www.pnas.org/content/114/44/11645

REFERENCE #2 is: Bossio, D.A., Cook-Patton, S.C., Ellis, P.W. et al. The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions. Nat Sustain (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0491-z