Climate change has now become a top business priority, but other sustainability-related issues can also be at the forefront of an organization’s goals. Co-benefits from carbon-related projects can provide additional value and assist in aligning multiple objectives to the right investment. How do co-benefits work?
What are co-benefits?
Co-benefits provide additional benefits that are more than the scope of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) prevention and elimination that positively affect communities and biodiversity. It’s important to recognize that not all types of carbon projects have the same amount or type of co-benefits. For instance the REDD+ project that aims to save a forest from deforestation can, as a result, generate jobs in the area and also preserve biodiversity in the area, whereas the direct air capture (DAC) project might create a few jobs but not offer greater ecological benefits.
Impact and quality measurement
There are other considerations when investing in carbon credits that have co-benefits, mainly around quality and the impact on communities and biodiversity. There are many projects that are poorly constructed; similarly to how the wrong offset could have an adverse effect on the environmental environment, a poorly planned project that has co-benefits could negative impact communities in the area and biodiversity.
Future frameworks could also influence the way co-benefits are analyzed. In the present it is there is a need to measure co-benefits. Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD) recommendations are being incorporated into the regulations of a variety of financial regulators. This includes those located in both the US and UK. Should the Task Force for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) was to suggest a similar model and businesses were required to disclose publicly their impact on the environment and biodiversity. This means that companies that invested in carbon offsets without a good co-benefits would be subject to scrutiny from the public and could put their climate claims as well as their brands at risk.
Biodiversity and biodiversity are both benefits.
Monitoring biodiversity and its assessment is more challenging than carbon since it requires regular, comprehensive information from the ground which can be expensive and time-consuming. However, because of our partnership together with Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) the most reliable source for biodiversity data, we have access to crucial biodiversity information that we use to inform our carbon project analyses that include:
Diversity of habitat and species
Monitoring equipments are being used in the area
information on income diversification , or improved agriculture to lessen pressure on biodiversity
National and regional threats to biodiversity at the national and regional levels
In a way, you can align more than one of your company’s objectives
The opportunity to invest in solving multiple sustainability problems with the same carbon project can be a huge benefit for any organization, but this can only be done in the event that the credit is of good quality and can meet the claims set out in the proposal. In the absence of this, there is a risk of negatively impacting biodiversity, people and the environment.
There are a number of factors that impact co-benefits and the overall quality of carbon credit projects. If you conduct the right due diligence, you have the an opportunity to invest in high-quality natural-based carbon credits and carbon credit exchange that meet your company’s net zero goals and offers the potential to solve other global problems.