The opportunities are vast.
Peatland offers one of the most effective ways of storing carbon but can in fact be a significant emitter if left unmanaged. With more than 20% of Scotland covered by peatland and with over 80% of this in a degraded state, restoring this environment is critical in helping us in the fight against climate change. Restoring peatland has shown many other benefits including improved water quality, diverse habitats, increased biodiversity, reduced flood risk and more.
In 2020, the Scottish Government announced an investment of more than £250 million into peatland restoration projects until 2030. This is being delivered through NatureScot’s Peatland ACTION Fund.
Over time, as peatlands are restored and emissions are reduced, the climate benefit leads to attractive funding opportunities through the voluntary carbon market. The IUCN’s Peatland Code gives assurance to these projects, by ensuring carbon credits are real and quantifiable when being sold as well as ensuring projects are validated and verified along the way.
Peatland Code Update (v1.2)
On May 4th, 2022, the Peatland Code was updated to version 1.2. All validations and verifications must happen against this version from 1st September.
Please ensure you read the official IUCN Peatland Code and Guidance documents to cover the updates in full but see some of the the key changes we have listed below:
- Restoration Validation: A restoration validation step is now included that will ensure restoration projects are going to plan and will take place within one year of the project start date. The verification will be conducted by an approved validation body.
- Starting work prior to Project Validation: The Peatland Code recommends project validation is in place before starting any restoration work. However, ‘if sufficient baseline evidence is handed in to the validation body’, restoration work could start prior to the completion of project validation. In this scenario ‘project validation should be achieved as soon as possible and before finishing the restoration’
- Project Duration: The project length is linked to the peat depth. ‘The rule about how peat depth is surveyed has changed from a site average to a minimum of 75% of peat depth survey points within all assessment units now required to exceed the minimum peat depth needed for the project duration.’
- Stakeholder Engagement: All projects will need to provide an opportunity for stakeholders and the local community to input at the project design phase. ‘Evidence will be required to show proactive stakeholder engagement has taken place’.
How can Rethink Carbon help?
It is important that our platform produces outputs that are 100% compatible with industry standards so we have integrated the Peatland Code into our platform – meaning no more spreadsheets.
The Rethink Carbon platform allows you to quickly try out some what-if scenarios and will respond in real time to different assumptions and locations. The screenshot below shows the cumulative reduction in carbon emissions over time.
With links to funding opportunities and relevant articles we aim to make the platform an informative tool in the planning process.
Our ‘Ask the Community’ feature allows you to engage with local communities to find out their perception of such projects and how they would like to be involved. With the additional functionality to post proposed projects to our public website, you can share details such as 3d story maps, document, project timelines, site photos and even the chance to organise volunteering/citizen science events.
