Breaking new ground – Farming and forestry providing new opportunities for Climate Action (Pat Snowdon)

UK Woodland Carbon Code
EMEX - Sustainability & Climate Change
21 November 2018
Dr. Pat Snowdon
Forestry Commission

woodlandcarboncode.org.uk
WCC and Peatland Code
• Launched in 2011
• Woodland creation only
• Account for carbon in biomass, soil
and management emissions
• High Standards
> Robust science
> Transparent Registry
> Independent Validation/
Verification
• Launched standard 2015
• Restoration of degraded &
drained peatlands
• Account for reduced emissions

Requirements
• UK Forestry Standard +
• Additionality
• Legal : Financial : Barrier
• Permanence
• Forestry Act, EIA regs,
• Risk assessment, Buffer (20% of project CO2)
• Requirement to restock if losses to wind, fire, pest & disease,
development
• Predict and monitor carbon sequestration
• Baseline : Leakage : Project benefit
• Conservative methodology developed with Forest Research
• Carbon Statements & Reporting
• Social and Environmental benefits: Option to monitor

Robust science
• Predict Carbon sequestration – up to 100 years:
• ‘C Lookup Tables’ based on Forest Research models & ESC
• Measure carbon sequestration as trees grow:
• ‘Carbon Assessment Protocol’ sets out monitoring methods

Native Woodland Thin/No-Thin
0.0
100.0
200.0
300.0
400.0
500.0
600.0
700.0
800.0
0-
5
5-
10
10-
15
15-
20
20-
25
25-
30
30-
35
35-
40
40-
45
45-
50
50-
55
55-
60
60-
65
65-
70
70-
75
75-
80
80-
85
85-
90
90-
95
95-
100
Period (Years)
PredictedCsequestration(tCO2)
Oak YC4 2.5m, No thin
Oak YC4 2.5m, Thinned

SS Clearfell 40 Years
0.0
100.0
200.0
300.0
400.0
500.0
600.0
700.0
800.0
0-5
5-10
10-15
15-20
20-25
25-30
30-35
35-40
40-45
45-50
50-55
55-60
60-65
65-70
70-75
75-80
80-85
85-90
90-9595-100
Period (Years)
PredictedCSequestration(tCO2)
SS, YC16, 2.0m, No thin
Long-Term Average, Clearfell 40 years

Monitoring: Sample Plots

Monitoring: Geo-tag photos

Validation and Verification
Validation
• At the outset
• Meets the standard (incl UKFS)
• Validate carbon prediction
Carried out by UKAS-accredited bodies
(ISO14065, ISO14064/3 & UKWAS)
(previously Acoura)
Monitoring
• After year 5 and every 10 years
• Field survey (except small woods)
• Assess actual sequestration
Verification
• After year 5 and every 10 years
up to 100 years/project length
• Meets the standard (incl UKFS)
• Verify actual carbon sequestration

Registry of carbon units
• Each unit has unique serial number
• Track issuance, ownership, transfer and use
• Pending Issuance Units
• ‘Promise to deliver’
• Not guaranteed
• Can only make CSR statements about future sequestration
→Converted upon verification to →
• Woodland Carbon Units
• Actual measured sequestration (=ex-post)
• Guaranteed (with buffer)
• Can be used as offset/compensation

UK Woodland Carbon Registry

UK as of 30 Sep 2018:
• 240 Projects registered
• 21,143 ha woodland
• 6.6 MtCO2 over lifetime
• 191 projects validated
• 6.4 MtCO2 over lifetime
• 1.2 Mt still for sale
Of which
• 56 projects verified yr 5
• 5000 WCUs verified to date
➢ > 70 Corporate Buyers
➢ Price: £5-15/tCO2
Global Ave woodland creation = $9.50
EU/Oceania forestry credits = $14.50

Application process:
1. Get Help? Agents who can assist including:
Forest Carbon, Lockhart-Garratt, Pryor & Rickett, James Lonsdale
(ex-WT), Highfield Forestry ……

Register, Validate, Verify
• Standard process (> 5ha net area)
• Small woods process for ( <= 5ha net area)
• Simpler, conservative carbon prediction
• No field survey at verification
• Group scheme – share validation/ verification costs
• Register within 2 years of start of planting
• Check eligibility, upload map and carbon calculation
• Validate within 3 years of registering
• Submit additionality spreadsheet, Project Design
Document
• Verify - year 5, 15 + 10-yearly

Main Players, England
Active participants:
• Forest Carbon
• Woodland Trust
• Marston Vale Trust
• Yorkshire Dales Millennium
Trust
• White Rose Forest
• James Lonsdale (ex-WT)
• Lockhart-Garratt
• Pryor & Rickett
Other interested agents:
• Savills
• Williams Round
• Dunnewoods
• HH Land
• Moor Trees
• Charlton Abbotts
• Davidson & Robertson
• Eden Treescapes
• Terranomics
Interested Landowners
• Chatsworth
• Lowther

Who Buys?
UK-based corporates for CSR or to compensate for
their UK-based emissions
• Retail: Waitrose, M&S, Sofa.com
• Paper/Printers: Premier Paper
• Transport: Stagecoach(Bus), Taxi, Chauffeur
• Travel: Eurocamp
• Fuel Distribution/Cards: BWOC, All Star Cards
• Financial: Green Investment Bank, Barclays
• Venues: Edinburgh Int. Conference Centre
• Building Management: Rider Levett Bucknall

Costs of participation:
• Per-project costs (cheaper if grouped)
• Registration: within 2 years planting
• Validation: within 3 years registering
• ~ £750 per project
• Verification: Year 5, 15, 25….. 95,100
• Time/cost of survey work (~ 1 day plus write-up)
• ~ £1.5K-£2K with field visit,
• ~ £750 if office-based
• Registry costs:
• To Issue PIUs at validation: £0.06/unit
• To convert PIU to WCU at verification: £0.03/unit

Costs and potential income
£5/tCO2 £10/tCO2
Gross Carbon Income 65,000£ 129,000£
Costs of WCC validation/verification/registry
Net Carbon Income 58,000£ 123,000£
£5/tCO2 £10/tCO2
Single Project: Costs of WCC valdiation/ verification/
registry
£5/tCO2 £10/tCO2
Grouped project: Costs of WCC valdiation/
verification/ registry
3,600£
Carbon Price
6,000£
12,000£
Carbon Price
Productive Conifer, 100ha, 45 year project,
claim 13,000 tCO2
Carbon PriceNative Broadleaves, 100ha, 95 Year project,
claim 30,000 tCO2
Native Broadleaves, 25ha, 95 Year project,
claim 7,600 tCO2

Yorks Dales Millennium Trust
• YDMT Group: 5 projects, 2-13 hectares
• Group validation reduced costs
• Will sequester 15,000 tCO2 over 100 years
• 13,000 tCO2 for sale
• 2,000 tCO2 to buffer
• 1 ‘agent’, Multi-landowner,
Lamberts Wood Storthwaite

James Lonsdale Group
• Planted 12/13 and 13/14, 1 landowner, multi site
• 4 sites, 1.5-5.5 ha, 13.5 ha total.
• 4 in England, 1 Wales
• Mostly formerly pasture, planting native woods
• Mostly near towns
• 6,511 tCO2 total
• 5,209 tCO2 to sell

Craigengillan, Ayrshire
• Craigengillan Estate: 210 ha, native woodland,
previously rough pasture for grazing
• Project Developer: Eamonn Wall
• Will sequester 81,000 tCO2 over 100 years
• 65,000 tCO2 for sale,
• UNESCO Biosphere
• Observatory in ‘Gold’ Dark Sky Park
• Chance to participate in
woodland conservation
& community projects
• Education (schools, scouts…)
• Recreation (17 miles footpath)

Buyers like:
• Local and tangible –
Customers and staff can
visit and touch
• Employee engagement –
Staff can visit and engage with
the project
• Customer engagement –
Customers can relate to your
chosen CSR or carbon project
• PR opportunities – get your CEO or Head of
Sustainability out to plant trees
• Product differentiation – demonstrate the
social, environmental and carbon benefits of
your company or product

Waitrose
• Since 2011 with Woodland Trust
• Will compensate for emissions of home
delivery fleet over time
• Bought carbon at Warcop, an MOD site in an
AONB, Cumbria
• Have bought over 22,000 carbon units
Why?
• They believe in trees, value the biodiversity,
environmental, recreation & flood control
benefits
• Raises Waitrose’s environmental and CSR
credentials
• Strong marketing messages to convey to
stakeholders
• Staff engagement through tree planting

Policy
• 1,000 UK companies have to report
GHG emissions
• Expanded to 12,000 next year?
Companies can use verified credits:
• To compensate for emissions
• To claim carbon neutrality
Recent policy documents:
• Stronger domestic carbon offset
market
• Woodland Carbon Guarantee

Woodland Carbon Guarantee
• £50 million over 30 years;
• guaranteed price for WCC-verified carbon units;
• price high enough to attract investors, low enough to
be cost-effective decarbonisation for Government;
• Further analysis to do - scheme design, eligibility
criteria, additionality requirements, including:
• Size of scheme
• Continuous cover/clear-fell
• Species requirements
• Price point (i.e. carbon price)
• Geographic focus – or not
• Timeline:
• Further analysis FY18/19
• Implement for 19/20 planting season

Future Developments
• Demand drivers:
• GHG reporting protocols (Paris rulebook…)
• Domestic offsets market
• ICAO Aviation Growth offsetting scheme?
• Heathrow, High Speed 2 (Trainline), Zero Carbon Homes
(London)?
• Improving/ Extending WCC:
• Harvested Wood Products/ Management Existing Woods?
• Agroforestry (incl. Hedges), Urban Trees?
• Linking Woodland and Peatland Carbon?
• Monitoring & Verification:
• More high-tech remote-sensed solutions in future?

THANKS FOR LISTENING
WCC Mailing list?
www.forestry.gov.uk/carboncode
pat.snowdon@forestry.gov.uk
LinkedIn: ‘Woodland Carbon’ group

Development
Design &
Validation Pilot
Launch Woodland
Carbon Code
Units available for
sale
2007 - 2010
2011
2012
2014
2016
Small Woods
Scheme Pilot
2015
Group Certification
& Carbon Registry
@ Markit
2013
Design & Pilot
Science/Monitoring
Launch Peatland
Code
1st Verification &
Launch
Science, Registry,
Validation

Breaking new ground – Farming and forestry providing new opportunities for Climate Action (Pat Snowdon)

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