ncx-gitbot
commented
1 year ago NCX response: A tonne-year is simply a unit of carbon account like a kilowatt hour is to a kilowatt for electricity, a unit of volume over time. While tonne-year accounting may not be used widely today in the voluntary carbon market, it has been supported as an alternative to traditional carbon accounting in the scientific literature for many years. One cannot adequately know the full benefit of a solution without adding in the time or duration term. Fundamentally, tonne-year accounting allows for the delivery of realized impact, not presumed future impact on timescales incongruent with the variability of natural systems. Furthermore, tonne-year accounting allows the direct comparison of benefits of different carbon offsets approaches over many different time scales and technologies.
Commenter Organization: Carbon Solutions Lead, Pachama Inc.
Commenter: Cindy Chiang
2021 Deferred Harvest Methodology Section: No Section Indicated
Comment: Transparent methodologies are required to instill market confidence. Rather than creating more accounting layers and alternative approaches on top of an already complex ecosystem of accounting methodologies, Pachama encourages Verra to leverage advancements in remote sensing technology and data availability to provide transparency and accountability on the observed ongoing climate benefit of Verified Carbon Units (VCUs). Alternatives such as enhanced programmatic requirements (i.e. annually for 30 years post crediting period) for ongoing monitoring is the most defensible approach to communicate the permanence of forest carbon projects. One is able to validate the ongoing climate benefit of credits independently with data, rather than by digging into often competing white papers, research, NGO position papers about the appropriate discounts that should be applied for delaying emissions for a few short years. We recognize that tonne-year accounting is a well-intentioned effort to change landowner incentives and enroll more landowners in the market to unlock greater supply. However, tonne-year accounting applies a short-term remedy for a systemic long-term challenge. It’s akin to a doctor prescribing a painkiller, rather than curing, a patient. Pachama is focused on long-term forest restoration and protection to address climate change. We favor policies that align landowner incentives with long-term carbon sequestration and community-based conservation. Our objective is to develop easy-to-understand crediting rules backed by user-friendly computing and performance tracking tools that transparently communicate how credits are calculated. We look forward to collaborating with Verra and others in this critical endeavor.
Proposed Change: No Proposed Change