SEATTLE – As the urgency of the climate crisis becomes impossible to ignore, private voluntary demand for “carbon credits” has surged. Corporate carbon-neutral pledges led to record volumes of carbon credit transactions in 2019, according to Ecosystem Marketplace, and initial evidence suggests that 2020 volumes may be even greater despite the pandemic. This is a positive sign. It indicates growing seriousness about the necessity of addressing climate change and, when coupled with support for ambitious government policy, is a truly welcome development. In response, and with commendable speed, the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets – launched by Mark Carney, the United Nations Special Envoy for Climate Action – recently came up with a blueprint for scaling voluntary carbon credit markets. But the draft blueprint fell short on a key question for these markets. In the context of the Paris Agreement, what can the buyers of carbon credits legitimately claim to be achieving?

The world is getting a better understanding of just how important forests are in the global fight against climate change. New research, published in Nature Climate Change and available on Global Forest Watch, found that the world’s forests sequestered about twice as much carbon dioxide as they emitted between 2001 and 2019. In other words, forests provide a “carbon sink” that absorbs a net 7.6 billion metric tonnes of CO2 per year, 1.5 times more carbon than the United States emits annually. Unlike other sectors, where carbon makes a one-way trip to the atmosphere, forests act as a two-way highway, absorbing CO2 when standing or regrowing and releasing it when cleared or degraded. … With these new data that combine ground measurements with satellite observations, we can now quantify carbon fluxes consistently over any area, from small local forests to countries to entire continents.

Jernforsen, part of Danish firm Linka Group, has upgraded Swedish wood producer Vida’s heating system to use wood waste left over from production. The sustainable wood producer now only uses waste derived from production to heat both sawmills and drying ovens in the village of Nössemark in Sweden. The upgrade took place in collaboration with Jernforsen. The city’s sawmill has been converted to heat the entire production – from premises to the drying oven – with the wood chips and bark that is left over from the production. Vida’s new boiler for the plant is 5 MW and optimised to handle efficient combustion of the moist biomass, which contains up to 60% moisture. … In addition, the existing silo for bark and wood chips has been renovated, modernised, and connected to the new boiler. A new boiler house was built for the new system. Jonas Axelsson, technical manager at Vida, said: “It is stable, simple, and reliable.