Carbon markets education · seven methods
How each method produces a tonne
How to read the step-through explainers: each one starts with a single scene and changes one thing at a time. The dashed grey bar to the right of the diagram is what would have happened anyway, the solid teal bar is what happens with the project, and the hatched band on the chart is what can be credited: the gap between the two bars for projects that avoid emissions, and the whole project bar above a zero baseline for projects that remove carbon.
01 · Savanna fire management
Early dry-season burningSavanna at the end of the dry season
Late in the dry season the grass has dried out and there’s a lot of it. The trees are still standing and nothing has burnt yet.
A late-season wildfire
Without the project: fire arrives late and burns hot. It reaches up into the tree canopy and releases carbon held in the grass, leaves and wood.
Burning earlier instead
With the project: fires are lit early, while the grass is still damp. They burn low and cool, and don’t reach the canopy.
Less left to burn
When the hot part of the season comes, fire runs into ground that has already burnt and can’t spread far. Same country, only the fire has changed.
What gets credited
Both cases involve burning; the scenario with the project releases less. The credit is the difference between the two.
02 · REDD+
Forest ConservationA forest at risk of clearing
A block of standing forest. Its trunks, branches and roots hold carbon, and clearing is expected here.
Clearing begins
Without the project: clearing moves in from a road or an existing edge. Trees come down and the carbon they held is released.
More forest is lost
The clearing keeps going and doesn’t come back. What’s lost stays lost.
The forest is protected
With the project: the block is protected and the trees stay standing, so the carbon stays where it is.
What gets credited
The credit is the loss that didn’t happen: the gap between the forest that would have gone and the forest still there.
03 · Improved cookstoves
Lowered emissions, smoke, and labourOne pot, one meal
Start with a single household meal. What changes from here is the stove underneath it, the fuel it takes and the smoke it makes.
Cooking on an open fire
Without the project: an open fire loses most of its heat to the air, so the meal takes more wood and fills the home with smoke.
A more efficient stove
With the project: an enclosed stove puts more of its heat into the pot, so the same meal needs less fuel.
Fuel and smoke per meal
The comparison is fuel for the same meal, side by side. Less wood burnt also means less smoke indoors and less time spent collecting it.
What gets credited
Wood that isn’t burnt is carbon that isn’t released. The credit is the difference between the two ways of cooking.
04 · Human-induced regeneration
Degraded grazing landDegraded grazing land
Country that has been grazed for a long time. The ground is largely bare and native vegetation has been kept from getting away.
Grazing continues
Without the project: the land stays as it is. Nothing much grows, so no extra carbon is stored.
Grazing pressure is lifted
With the project: management changes and native vegetation starts to come back. Same soil, same horizon.
Regeneration
Years on, the regrowth is taller and thicker, taking carbon out of the air and holding it in wood, leaves and soil. One paddock, later.
What gets credited
The credit is the carbon the regrowth now holds.
05 · Renewable energy
Clean Energy GenerationOne grid, six units
Electricity demand is met by a set of generating units feeding the same grid.
Powered by fossil fuels
Without the project: that demand is met by burning coal or gas. Every unit that runs emits.
Renewables take part of the load
With the project: wind or solar supplies some of the demand, so some of the fossil generation isn’t needed.
Same power, fewer emissions
Demand hasn’t changed and nobody is using less electricity. What’s changed is where the electricity comes from.
What gets credited
The credit is the fossil generation that was displaced: the emissions avoided by meeting the same demand more cleanly.
06 · Afforestation and reforestation
Tree-plantingsA bare plot
Land with no trees on it. Carbon gets stored below ground as well as above, so the root zone is in the picture from the start.
The land stays bare
Without the project: nothing is planted and nothing grows, so no carbon is taken out of the air.
Planted
With the project: seedlings go in and put down roots.
Biomass accumulates
As the trees grow they pull carbon out of the air and hold it in trunks, branches, leaves and roots. Same trees, years later.
What gets credited
The credit is the carbon the growing trees now hold.
07 · Plantation forestry
Schedule 4 · transition to permanent forestA working plantation
A plantation grown to be cut. Trees are harvested and replanted on a cycle, so the carbon held never builds up for long.
Cleared for farmland
Without the project: the trees are cut a final time and the land is converted to another use, such as cropping. Carbon stops accumulating.
Kept as forest instead
With the project: the harvest is given up and the block is kept as forest, protected the same way a conservation project would be.
Held permanently
With no harvest, the trees keep growing past the point they would have been cut, and the carbon they hold keeps building.
What gets credited
The credit is the carbon added by the forest left standing.