Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 5:28:15 GMT
Traditionally, offset markets have focused on credits for atmospheric carbon capture or restoration projects. But there are many other ways that industrial and agricultural operations harm the planet. Australia-based environmental project developer, GreenCollar , decided to address a problem by creating a new type of credit to address an environmental issue very close to its country's heart: the degradation of the Great Barrier Reef. We are thrilled to work with like-minded partners in HSBC and the Queensland Government to issue the first Reef Credits. t.co/We8PzQNJwV — GreenCollar (@greencollargcs) October 22, 2020 «Reef Credits» Behind climate change, the biggest threat to the Great Barrier Reef is poor water quality. Agricultural runoff from The Great Barrier Reef Catchments – a rural area covering 163,700 square miles of the Queensland coast that drains directly onto the reef – causes high levels of nitrogen and sediment to leach into the ocean and damage the reef ecosystem. GreenCollar's new system creates a market for "reef credits" with the aim of mitigating these practices. Similar to carbon credits, these reef credits are sold by farmers or project developers to organizations and companies seeking to offset their environmental footprints. Those sales help fund better land management practices. But instead of removing or preventing carbon from the atmosphere, the reef credits go to help improve water quality in this very specific area to protect the reef.
One reef credit in the GreenCollar system is equivalent to one kilogram of nitrogen, or 538 kilograms of sediment avoided from the ocean. Unlike carbon credits, which focus on helping companies or individuals make removal claims, reef credits are about reducing pollution at the edge of the system. Currently, there is no scheme to remove nitrogen in the water system. GreenCollar said it worked Europe Cell Phone Number List with farmers and verification auditors, including the Reef Credit Secretariat and EcoMarkets Australia, as well as the Queensland government and private sector buyers. including financial services giant HSBC, to develop, authorize and sell these new credits. Carole Sweatman, general manager of water quality at GreenCollar, shared: It was really important that farmers were part of building the process itself. There's no point in building this wonderfully brilliant architecture if you deploy it on the ground and find that people simply can't use it or it just doesn't make sense to them.
Carole Sweatman, general manager of water quality at GreenCollar. The thousands of farmers in the Great Barrier Reef catchments use fertilizers to grow sugar cane, bananas, avocados, mangoes and tomatoes. But the high level of rainfall in the area produces intense agricultural runoff into the ocean near the reef. The sale of reef credits finances investments in more efficient fertilization practices, such as matching application to the needs of specific crops and removing compacted soil to decrease excess runoff. Sometimes that means restructuring the entire farm… Buying new equipment, installing GPS. Those kinds of things can add considerable costs. Carole Sweatman, general manager of water quality at GreenCollar. In grazing and livestock areas near wetlands, erosion and gullies have allowed nitrogen and sediment to bypass the wetland drainage system and enter directly into the sea. Proceeds from reef credits will help repair the landscape, manage drainage systems and combat overgrazing by livestock to protect these areas. Carole Sweatman, general manager of water quality at GreenCollar.