The cost of project development and verification can be a significant financial barrier for a carbon offset project, particularly smaller projects. To drive even more positive climate impact through offset projects, the Reserve’s voluntary offset program welcomes certain project types to enter into an aggregate or cooperative.
Aggregation involves the bundling of either multiple projects into one group or multiple activities into a single project for the purposes of project development and verification. A “project aggregate” is a group of individual projects in the registry. An “aggregated project” is a single project in the registry, but there may be multiple underlying entities, such as different fields and farmers, and that may appear as individual projects in the registry. A cooperative is essentially the same as an aggregate, but the Reserve employed a different term to denote that there is no quantitative or statistical intermingling, simply shared management and verification (which could occur in grassland and nitrogen management). The flexible options for aggregation allow for the market to determine how to organize projects. The rules for aggregates and cooperatives vary by project type, as determined by the project activity and best process for aggregation in that context.
The main benefits of aggregation are cost savings, increased efficiency, and convenience for participants. Under the Reserve’s voluntary offset program, the following protocols contain policies allowing for some form of aggregation: U.S. Forest, Mexico Forest, U.S Grassland, Canada Grassland, Nitrogen Management, Rice Cultivation, Urban Forest Management, and Livestock project protocols.
Benefits:
Allowing projects to register as part of a group, or allowing multiple instances of eligible project activities to be bundled together, aims to facilitate greater participation and may help with:
Ensuring integrity:
Reserve protocols contain several mechanisms to uphold the rigorous accounting standards at the aggregate level and ensure the integrity of projects participating in an aggregate or cooperative. This is primarily accomplished through pooling and sampling for verification activities. Aggregation may also help increase the accuracy of GHG reduction estimates at a program level by encouraging greater participation, which reduces structural uncertainty within greenhouse gas modeling programs. The features are protocol-specific, based on applicability to each project type.
For example, for grassland cooperatives, as with all grassland projects, the risk is low enough that the site visit during verification has been made optional. However, an additional buffer pool contribution must be made to account for the increased risk. This allows cooperative developers to determine for themselves how many projects within a cooperative should get a site visit for a given verification period.
Case studies:
Grassland: Southern Plains Land Trust
The Southern Plains Land Trust is preserving and restoring two Colorado ranches that protect 8,000 metric tons of soil carbon per year. The projects in the cooperative earn offset credits for greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the avoided loss of soil carbon due to the avoided conversion of grassland to cropland. The Raven’s Nest Nature Preserve project comprises 265 acres of grasslands in Bent County, Colorado. The native prairie has never been broken for crop cultivation and a number of rare and threatened flora and fauna exist on this property. This project is entirely too small to be feasible on its own without the cooperative structure. The Heartland Ranch Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects comprise 1895 acres and 2698 acres, respectively, of grassland. Each project entered into a conservation easement to protect the grassland from conversion to cropland and underwent a verification process involving desk review of the Monitoring Plan, GrassTool, and documentation, as well as a site visit to verify the project equipment, location eligibility, GHG management systems, data collection and handling, procedures in place, and risk assessment. In this situation, where the projects in the cooperative are in the same geographic region and managed by the same Project Owner, the cooperative structure offers efficiencies and allows them to largely function as a single project for subsequent verifications.
Mexico Forest: Silviculture Association for the Pachuca and Tulancingo Forest Region
This is an aggregate made up of 20 individual projects, including both ejidal (communal) and private landowners. The forest owners have historically worked together on the management of their forests. Each project only has one Activity Area; the project developer developed the inventory for each Activity Area following the guidance in the MFP Quantification Guidance. Since the aggregate includes a total of 20 Activity Areas, rather than having a TSE of +/- 5% at a confidence of 90%, each Activity Area had to reach a TSE of +/- 20% at a confidence of 90% in order to not receive a confidence deduction. This reduced the number of plots significantly. A typical Activity Area must install 300-400 plots, however, each Activity Area in this case only has around 60 plots. Each project is now undergoing its initial onsite verification; although, only 10 projects will have to undergo an onsite verification in 6 years (then only 10 will undergo the onsite verification in 12 years). For the next desktop review verification, if they choose to undergo the desktop review verification annually, only 5 projects (square root of 20 rounded up) will have to undergo the desktop verification, and those projects are to be selected randomly each year.
Canada Grassland Project Protocol opens opportunities for land conservation, emissions reduction and financial incentives to address climate change
LOS ANGELES, CA – The Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors adopted the Canada Grassland Project Protocol (CGPP) Version 1.0, establishing a foundation for growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction opportunities in Canada and creating new financial incentives for the conservation of grassland. The offset protocol provides a standardized approach for quantifying, monitoring and verifying the GHG reductions from the avoided conversion of grassland to cropland in Canada. The protocol adaptation process initially began under contract with the Province of Ontario and its completion was made possible by support from the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association and Viresco Solutions.
“This is a significant development for advancing offsets in Canada and expanding participation across the continent. This protocol wouldn’t have been developed and adopted today if it hadn’t been for the steadfast support of and interest from Canadian groups that saw the value and importance in this opportunity. We were both proud and appreciative to work in collaboration with these leaders, including the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association,” said Linda Adams, Chair of the Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors.
The CGPP was modeled off the US Grassland Project Protocol V2.0 and adapted to conditions in Canada. Eligible lands are private and tribal lands that demonstrate clear ownership and at least 10 years of continuous grassland cover. Projects may receive credits for up to 30 years.
Development of the protocol involved extensive research, incorporation of existing Canadian rating systems and workgroup feedback to produce a protocol that lowers barriers for participation for land owners while maintaining the standards for rigor and integrity that are required for all Reserve protocols. To assist with making Canadian grassland projects more accessible, the CGPP allows project aggregation through “cooperatives” to reduce transaction costs while meeting the ownership and reporting needs of the Reserve’s voluntary program. Eligibility and quantification were also developed to be as streamlined as possible, relying on standardized tests and emission factors.
“This is an exciting first step in Canada for recognizing the significant contribution that Canadian grasslands are making to climate change mitigation through soil carbon sequestration,” said Cedric MacLeod, Executive Director of the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association. “I’m proud of the leadership role that the CFGA has had and the opportunity to assume this role. However, this is only a first step towards helping to conserve Canadian grasslands and monetizing the carbon stored in the soils below them. This is also an opportunity to communicate with Canadians about why grassland conservation is so crucial to achieving many of the ecological and environmental conservation goals shared by many Canadians. We’ve got big plans going forward. This is just a first step.”