Dear Stakeholders,
Last week’s meeting began with a presentation by Dr. Katie Kaplan on digital MRV (monitoring, reporting, and verification) for nature-based solutions. Katie, the founder of Next Wave Carbon LLC, is working alongside BCarbon thanks to funding from Rice University’s SSPEED Center. She began with an overview of how dMRV is defined and a summary of how it can be applied to forest and soil carbon projects. Next, she outlined how she has been using data from the Carbon Rho Project in the Red River Valley alongside remote sensing to create a predictive model of forest carbon accumulation. In the coming months, Katie will continue to work on forest and soil carbon modeling, and she will also begin to examine remote sensing options for methane and blue carbon.
Next up, we had a series of presentations from members of the BCarbon team. James FitzGerald gave a presentation on the state of the biodiversity crediting market. He provided an overview of the market’s rapid development over the last two years and described the major methodologies and approaches to measurement and crediting. Despite the many similarities between biodiversity crediting and carbon offsetting, a key difference is the lack of fungibility that biodiversity displays, which makes like-for-like offsetting difficult. Until recently, there had been almost no substantial purchases of biodiversity credits. James devoted the latter half of the presentation to detailing transactions that have occurred this year and offered predictions for the market’s future development: in short, that it will mature into a small but appreciable niche.
After that, Sarah Swackhamer provided some carbon market policy updates. First up, we discussed CFTC v. Ikkurty: the first major action from CFTC’s Environmental Fraud Task Force. Then, Sarah provided an overview of the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi)’s revised stance on carbon offsetting. In a July discussion paper, SBTi outlined potential uses for carbon credits in approved science-based targets, notably to offset residual emissions and advance “beyond value chain mitigation” (taking responsibility beyond our own scopes 1-3). However, SBTi did not commit to including any in its forthcoming, revised accounting system. The paper that outlined these options is open for public comment until the 4th of October. And since our meeting last week, SBTi has published an update on their plans to formally expand their Corporate Net-Zero Standard, which you can read here.
Next, we ran through some BCarbon updates. These included new collaborations with Valero on a Galveston-area living shoreline construction project, and with the Rice University SSPEED Center to conduct grant-funded research on the Brazos River Valley. Technical Operations Manager Melanie Martin also announced our first methane credit issuance: the Cross Timbers Reclamation Project, which will yield 10,535 tCO2e of avoided emissions from the plugging of the HillTex River Ranch “180” #1 well in Shackleford County, Texas. Finally, James announced that BCarbon is the recipient, alongside our partners at Prairie View A&M and the US Business Council for Sustainable Development, of a $1.5 million grant from the US Forest Service under the Inflation Reduction Act. The funding will support our joint work to create a cooperative of small-acreage forest landowners.
We then heard about the recent activities of our subcommittees. Sarah gave a status update on our Insurance Subcommittee, which will meet next on October 10th to discuss insurance solutions in the blue carbon space. Bill Ward, BCarbon stakeholder and chair of the Subcommittee, noted that we hope our work will help de-risk carbon crediting. He referenced a recent article on Jeff Bezos (who, coincidentally, spent much of his childhood in Cotulla, Texas on his grandfather’s ranch!). Bezos has a history of supporting diverse initiatives that he thinks might help to, as Bill puts it, "stabilize, optimize, and democratize” the carbon market.
Engineering Analyst Emmanuel Ellerbee then provided updates on the work of the BCarbon Sports Subcommittee. He explained how Houston’s carbon drawdown potential can be leveraged to reduce the emissions of athletic competitions, such as team and fan travel, for major sporting events from the World Cup to collegiate athletics.
To conclude the meeting, Sarah announced that we will be sending out our first Stakeholder Survey later this year. The aim will be to gain a better understanding of the current role of our stakeholder group, assess how it should operate in the future, and gather feedback from you all. The survey will be distributed towards the end of the year, so stay tuned. If you are interested in helping us develop it, reach out to Sarah!
You can view the compiled slides from the meeting here:
Upcoming Meetings:
Texas Climate Smart Initiative Carbon Market Webinar: September 26, 10 AM CT (register here if interested)
Insurance subcommittee, focusing on blue carbon: October 8, 10 AM CT
Next full group meeting: November 12, 9 AM CT
To be added to any meeting, please contact Sarah (Sarah.Swackhamer@BCarbon.org)
All meetings held via Zoom.
You can also access our upcoming schedule any time on our website’s events page. If you have questions, comments, ideas, or concerns, please feel free to email, call, text, or set up a Zoom.
As always, thanks for your support and input. Wishing you a fulfilling start to the fall!
Best,
BCarbon