Verra is pleased to announce that the new “Methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management” under the VCS Program is now open for public comment until 5 July 2020.
In the IPCC’s 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C and the IPCC’s 2019 Special Report on Climate Change and Land, soil carbon sequestration was highlighted as a nature-based solution with high potential for removing carbon from the atmosphere at low cost, while simultaneously delivering a host of co-benefits to farmers and the environment. Despite this potential, the finance necessary to scale up soil carbon sequestration activities has been slow to materialize. The sale of carbon credits in voluntary or compliance markets from improved agricultural land management (ALM) activities could help connect these projects to additional sources of finance and drive their implementation at scale.
With this in mind, Indigo Ag Inc. and TerraCarbon LLC have developed a new methodology to quantify the greenhouse gas emission reductions and soil organic carbon storage resulting from the adoption of improved ALM practices. Such practices include reductions in fertilizer application and tillage, improvements in water management, residue management, cash crop and cover crop planting and harvest, and grazing practices.
The full draft of the “Methodology for Improved Agricultural Land Management” is available on Verra’s website for you to review. Please send any comments to secretariat@verra.org by 5 July 2020.
Additionally, staff from Indigo Ag, TerraCarbon, and Verra hosted a webinar to introduce the methodology on Wednesday, 17 June 2020 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. Please click here to view the webinar recording.