Conservatism and permanence under the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code
Woodland permanence
If one chilly morning you make a 'green' decision to wear more woollies and turn off the heating then the CO2 emissions you've just avoided have been avoided forever. The official Kyoto term for this is 'permanently avoided'.
With carbon woodlands, the CO2 is not 'permanently avoided'. Instead, it is 'permanently locked up' in a dynamic forest ecosystem.
As 'permanent reservoirs' the trees are (1) self-regenerating and managed to ensure the permanent presence of the right number of trees on the site; (2) replanted if lost for any reason. This is a requirement under UK law, where woodland creation is presumed to be a permanent land use change, and also written into our contracts with landowners.
The Woodland Carbon Code buffer
Conservatism is key to Woodland Carbon Code carbon calculations. A WCC project must guarantee that at least as much carbon is captured as was estimated, promoted and sold. It does this by ‘buffering’, which means deducting a percentage of the estimated CO2 sequestration over a woodland’s lifetime to create a buffer.
There are two phases to buffering. The first deduction is made to cover any calculation inaccuracies that may occur, and the second is to mitigate against failure to deliver (e.g. if some trees don’t make it due to disease).
As of July 2024, WCC woodlands each contribute 20% of the project’s net carbon sequestration to the buffer. This process safeguards against over-estimating the carbon impact of woodland and protects the reputation of the Code and the wider UK voluntary carbon market.
Woodland carbon data
Woodland carbon estimates are based on data from the Forestry Commission's world-leading Forest Research department
Carbon estimates are project-specific, based on the species mix and management plan. In addition, estimates will be adjusted based on local forestry knowledge.
Peatland permanence
Reversibility is a risk when it comes to peatland restoration. Safeguards are written into the Peatland Code to minimise these and ensure that emissions reductions are permanent.
The Peatland Code buffer
Much like the Woodland Carbon Code, the Peatland Code is conservative with the carbon estimates it will validate.
To mitigate inaccuracies in carbon calculations and account for the emissions that might arise from restoration, the Code takes a percentage of the gross emissions calculated from a project. In Version 2.0 of the Peatland Code (released in 2023), this sat at 10%.
In addition, as an insurance policy to safeguard against ‘unintentional reversal of post-restoration conditions’, the Code holds a risk buffer. In Version 2.0, it’s stated that a project must give 15% of net GHG emissions reductions over the project duration to the buffer. This is expected to rise in the next version of the Code.
Peatland Code carbon data
The emissions factors used for Peatland Code emissions calculations are derived from an analysis of published flux data; UK data sets as well as international data from ‘climatically analogous regions’ are used.
