July 11, 2022 - BCarbon, a Houston-based carbon credit registry, has issued its first international soil carbon credits in the United Kingdom. These credits are the first in a major initiative to reverse climate change by using farmland to pull harmful carbon from the atmosphere.
Future Food Solutions has created the Futures Carbon Bank to sell credits on the voluntary carbon market. Working with the British Consulate in Houston, Future Foods also partnered with BCarbon, an independent verification body, which was formed by a stakeholder group out of the Baker Institute at Rice University.
Under the carbon bank program, farmers are encouraged to grow cover crops that pull carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil while employing no-till practices. Increasingly popular in the UK, cover crops are planted between the regular food crop rotation so they don't impact the amount of food UK farmers produce.
Unlike many carbon-credit programs, the credits awarded by BCarbon are for soil carbon management practices that actually remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in the soil as organic carbon. In this way, farmers can combat climate change while continuing to feed the world.
Carbon credit trading is expected to hit $50 billion by 2030, and the Future Food Solutions approach could unlock millions of tons of sequestered carbon credits by utilizing farmland around the world. Multinational information and analytics giant RELX bought the first tons of verified carbon credits, which were generated by a single farm on the Yorkshire Wolds in northeast England.
"This partnership with Future Food Solutions has been particularly exciting for BCarbon," said Jim Blackburn, CEO of BCarbon. "We are today announcing our first international carbon credits in what we intend to be the first steps toward removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is, after all, the goal here."
How This Partnership Occurred
The Science and Innovation Team at the British Consulate facilitated the relationship between Future Foods and BCarbon following a carbon credit stakeholder group at the Baker Institute at Rice University. The stakeholder group spawned the creation of BCarbon in 2021.
With the assistance of Richard Hyde, Her Majesty's Consul General in Houston, Future Foods and BCarbon began a collaboration that led to the issuance of these carbon storage credits.
"Addressing the challenges of climate change requires an international approach," said Consul General Hyde. "The Consulate in Houston has been proud to catalyse this collaboration between BCarbon and Future Food Solutions which models the innovative approach necessary to tackle our shared challenges."
Steve Cann, a partner with Future Foods agreed, stating "Working with the team at BCarbon is a real trans-Atlantic technical partnership, resulting in farmers receiving credit for their positive actions in removing CO2 from the atmosphere and ultimately being part of the solution to climate change."
How does it work?
Under the BCarbon program, Future Food Solutions conducts soil analysis before the cover crop is sown and then uses a series of rigorous tests to determine exactly how many tons of carbon have been removed from the atmosphere. Much of this field data has been acquired in conjunction with Yorkshire Water and Proagrica, who have partnered with Future Food Solutions on catchment scale farmer engagement programs in the UK.
Although sequestration will vary because of weather, cover crop and soil type, on average in the Yorkshire region, a hectare of cover crop and no-till farming will deliver 2-3 tons of carbon to trade. Upon measurement under the BCarbon system, project developers such as Future Foods and their farmers then receive money through the sale of their carbon credits.
Who buys the carbon?
The stored carbon is sold to major organizations looking to offset their carbon footprint. More than a third of the world's largest publicly traded companies have already made net zero pledges and demand for quality carbon removal credits is increasing.
Steve Cann from Future Food Solutions says: "This is a step change in carbon removal providing a real opportunity for major organizations to reduce their carbon footprint. This approach also offers global reach as soil stock in all farming environments around the world could provide significant capacity to become a huge carbon sink.
"Farming has traditionally received bad press on carbon emissions, but this could change that. It means farmers in the UK and beyond can provide a solution to one of the biggest climate change issues, highlighted at COP26 in Glasgow.
"Plus, if we do it right, food gets better. Water and flood management improve because the cover crops transform below-ground soil structure, which in turn helps to reduce leaching and water run-off. Because CO2 is actually being sequestered back into the soil from the atmosphere, the planet starts to heal as well".
"Everyone can contribute by eating smarter and actively choosing to buy food products sourced from land where this remedial process is being undertaken by farmers."
First credits from Yorkshire
The first verified carbon credits have come from Tom Mellor's farm high above Bridlington, in the North Yorkshire Wolds. Mellor says: "Farming is about achieving a balance, similar to the challenge the planet is facing, with regard to climate change. If we take out more than we put back in, future generations will pay the price."
Tom also commented "Knowing now that farming can be the solution, not the problem, is encouraging us to rethink both our practices and mindset."
The Sustainable Futures Carbon Bank aims initially to bring 10,000 carbon credits to the voluntary market in the coming months from other farms involved in the plan across the UK and EU but has big ambitions to tap into agricultural land across the world, freeing up millions of carbon credits to be traded with global brands.
BCarbon is a 501(c)(3) non-profit carbon credit registry formed from a stakeholder group at the Baker Institute at Rice University that is engaged in issuing carbon credits associated with soil sequestration, forest sequestration and coastal blue carbon protection and storage. https://bcarbon.org/.
