An Australian start-up has sold its first batch of Kelp Reforestation Credits to a commercial fishing company and has begun the process of developing a carbon credit methodology for kelp reforestation under two well-established carbon offset standards.

Perth-based project developer Canopy Blue has sold a first batch of Kelp Reforestation Credits (KRCs) to Austral Fisheries, one of Australia’s biggest commercial fishing firms that became the world’s first seafood business to claim carbon neutrality in 2016.

Under the deal, each KRC came stapled to an international carbon credit – sourced by Canopy Blue – eligible to count towards carbon neutral status for Austral under the government’s Climate Active programme, according to Canopy Blue CEO Jon-Paul Cox.

The arrangement means Austral can use the mix of carbon credits to offset its carbon footprint, while paying extra to help fund a project Canopy Blue has launched in cooperation with the University of Western Australia, to reforest an area of almost 100,000 hectares off the state’s coast where all the kelp was lost to a 2011 marine heatwave.

The destruction of the area saw over 300,000 tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere, and the reforestation project aims to re-sequester that, while at the same time provide crucial habitat to a number of marine species which will help restore local biodiversity.

ONE PLANT AT THE TIME

Each KRC represents one kelp plant grown at the Indian Ocean Marines Research Centre in Western Australia and planted at the project site, which stretches from Jurien Bay 220 km north of Perth to the coastal town of Kalbarri, 370 km further north.

“We have minted 80,000 Kelp Reforestation Credits so far, and sold 13,000 of them. In total we expect to mint another 960,000 over the next two years,” Cox told Carbon Pulse.

While Austral bought the first batch of units that were coupled with carbon credits, Cox said some others have also purchased just KRCs for ESG purposes, helping to fund the expensive project.

The remaining 67,000 credits already minted will be put out for auctioning in the near future, to help establish a market price for the units.

Canopy Blue is working with Australian sustainability firm EverClime, and all KRCs will be retired and accounted for on their blockchain-based platform.

Meanwhile, the stapled carbon credits come from a wide range of Australian and international carbon projects, most of which Cox established a relationship with in his previous work as a project developer and carbon trader, most recently for Perth-based Carbon Neutral.

LOFTY PLANS

Experts, project developers, and other market participants are becoming increasingly aware of kelp’s huge potential as a carbon sink, although measuring it presents a challenge.

So far, ocean tech firm Urchinomics remains the only other company to have issued kelp-related carbon credits, designed for the Japanese market.

On average, around eight kelp plants go on a square metre, but once they are planted, some will grow, some will die, and some will float to outside the project area where they might flourish or vanish, Cox explained.

That’s the reason why Canopy Blue is selling credits based on the number of planted kelps rather than on tonnes of CO2 stored, but that will change in the future.

According to Cox, a lot of work has been done on seaweed farms, and the company is working with partners to develop a kelp reforestation crediting methodology for international voluntary carbon standard Verra as well as for Australia’s domestic Australian Carbon Credits Unit (ACCU) programme.

“Within 18 months we expect there to be kelp reforestation credits issued under those standards,” said Cox.

To make that happen, it is working with sister company Eco Detection, a water monitoring service provider, which has developed a water analysis system designed for remote operations, including technology to automatically accurately measure verifiable data for carbon and nutrient concentrations in water.

While Canopy Blue’s initial project is located in Western Australia it has ambitions to grow its activities to an industrial scale, and has received interest from other potential locations elsewhere in Australia as well as globally.

“Around 2-3 million hectares of kelp forest is lost each year, so there is a massive potential for reforestation projects,” Cox told Carbon Pulse.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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