"It's speed, accuracy, and scalability, all in one go," he said. "It is fast because once you've got the images, you process them."Ĭarbon credits can then be verified and issued faster. "It would cost a bit more, as you would need a bit more satellite imagery, a bit more computer processing, but that is a scalable solution that can expand 100,000 hectares," he added. "That's obviously a very scalable solution because even if the area is 10 times the size, you don't need extra manpower," Wolf said. OxCarbon uses 50-centimeter resolution, which, together with advancements in computing power, means that the level of accuracy is now an "order of magnitude greater" across larger areas, he said. Older satellites also don't show microchanges year by year, so by the time an issue occurs, it's likely too late, he added.Ī mangrove in a seagrass bed in Islamorada, Florida. Older technology provides 30-meter resolutions, meaning every pixel on a picture is 30 square meters, so the area that can be looked at in depth is limited. This affected the accuracy of carbon estimations. This is all fed into a machine-learning model, along with other data, to estimate how much carbon is stored and how much could be stored.īut it was difficult to differentiate degraded forest from mature forest over large sample areas, Wolf said. Satellite monitoring is already established on land, where it's used to determine tree types and the size and maturity of a forest without having to manually collect data, which makes it more scalable. His nonprofit aims to bring transparency to carbon projects, including a mangrove project where satellite images are linked to visible forest characteristics and soil-sample data to establish quantities of blue carbon stored. "It's a bit like going from dial-up internet to 3G," he said. Satellites have hit a "tipping point" and have unlocked blue carbon, according to Guy Wolf, the founder and director of the Oxford University spinout OxCarbon. Tech advances like 'going from dial-up internet to 3G' The blue-carbon ecosystem is leaning heavily into these technologies in an attempt to avoid the accuracy and verification issues that have plagued terrestrial projects. It uses cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and satellites to monitor and verify the health and carbon storage of marine ecosystems, the latter being the basis of blue credits. His organization is building a seagrass- and seascape-monitoring service, which he said would plug that gap. One thing the Bahamian effort is missing is "data and scalability," Dimos Traganos, a scientist with the Global Seagrass Watch, told Insider. Green carbon, by comparison, is stored on land, usually in woodland projects. It could represent one-fifth of the emissions reductions needed to keep within 1.5 degrees of warming, a 2019 report from the World Resources Institute found.Ĭoastal and marine ecosystems such as seagrass, salt marshes, kelp forests, and mangroves also help mitigate the effects of climate change, namely coastal erosion, sea-level rises, and floods, while providing a habitat for marine life. Over $50 billion worth of carbon credits have been predicted to be traded annually in the voluntary market, according to McKinsey.īlue carbon, which is stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, has become an increasingly important asset in the fight against the climate crisis. One credit represents a ton of carbon sequestered or prevented from entering the atmosphere. The Caribbean nation sized up its mangroves and seagrass meadows, both of which naturally trap CO2, and estimated it had about $300 million worth of assets it could sell to a voluntary carbon market littered with corporations struggling to find high-quality credits.Īt the time, the country's prime minister, Philip Davis, compared the sale of blue-carbon credits to that of a waste-collection service, with the Bahamas dealing with the world's greenhouse-gas emissions - or "garbage." The Bahamas made history last year when it announced it was to become one of the first nations to sell credits linked to the capture and storage of carbon in its waters. Click here for Morning Brew’s privacy policy. It often indicates a user profile.īy clicking “Sign Up,” you also agree to marketing emails from both Insider and Morning Brew and you accept Insider’s Terms and Privacy Policy. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders.
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