US corporations Delta Air Lines and Chevron are among the companies purchasing low percentages of carbon credits associated with stronger biodiversity scores, according to a study that relies on a new metric.
Data analytics firm AlliedOffsets has developed a metric to assess whether nature-based carbon projects are biodiversity-positive, and used it to compare buyers of carbon credits as well as identify the markets that are performing better than others.
The metric, dubbed the ‘biodiversity attention score’ (BAS), takes into account both the methodologies that inform restoration projects and the individual documents drafted by project developers.
“First, we developed a classification of restoration methodologies. This metric showed whether these methodologies had any biodiversity requirements for the projects,” said Jacobus Petersen, data analyst at AlliedOffsets.
“Second, following the focus on project design, we developed an AI-powered tool to review the individual project design documents (PDDs). Collected by AlliedOffsets, these PDDs are written by project developers and situate a more general methodology in a specific geographical, ecological, and social context.”
The analysis, which covered 78% of all issued credits from nature-based projects, showed that Shell, Eni, EasyJet, and Volkswagen bought a high percentage of credits with strong BAS, while this percentage was much lower for Delta, Primax Colombia, and Chevron.
Notably, over 88% of retirements by the British oil and gas company Shell were associated with a high BAS. Other top performers were the Italian energy company Eni (79%) and the German energy supplier Entega (75%).
Companies with the lowest rates included Colombian firms Zeuss Petroleum (2%), Petroleos del Milenio (5%), and Terpel (10%), while Delta and Primax Colombia stood at 40% and 45% respectively, according to AlliedOffsets.
CALIFORNIA EFFECT
“The score should be seen as an early version of a more comprehensive biodiversity impact assessment. We are hoping to attach more layers to the score in the near future,” said Petersen.
Geographically, the US made up the largest share of high BAS credits, with over 240 million issuances, mainly linked to the California state compliance market.
Over 82 mln carbon credits associated with a high BAS were generated in Peru, 75 mln in Indonesia, 67 mln in Brazil, and 40 mln in Colombia.
Last month, AlliedOffsets published an analysis of 64 methodologies informing nearly 6,000 restoration projects worldwide, which generated approximately 380 million carbon credits.
Results showed that 67% of these units were issued for projects with methodologies that have biodiversity requirements.
The strongest criteria were observed among small-scale and tailored frameworks, such as Plan Vivo, as well as those linked to compliance markets, including the cap-and-trade system in California.
Conversely, carbon standards using methodologies following the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) frameworks are lagging behind.
Some voluntary carbon standards have recently ditched the UN crediting methodologies, including the UK-headquartered Social Carbon and Verra.
However, as AlliedOffsets pointed out, Verra’s new VM0047 methodology for afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR) projects released in Oct. 2023 also lacked biodiversity requirements.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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