Lithuanian climate investment firm Heavy Finance has added agricultural land equivalent to more than 700,000 soccer fields in Ukraine to its soil carbon credit program.
Modern agriculture takes a toll on the soil. Centuries of cultivation, logging, and overgrazing have reduced the fertility of the land.This was also released billions of tons emit CO2 into the atmosphere.
HeavyFinance pays farmers to put some of this carbon back into the ground.
Specifically, we issue loans to facilitate the transition to regenerative agriculture. This includes rotating crops, growing cover crops during lean seasons, and tilling less frequently. These processes remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil, giving us numbers.
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As farmers transition to this new farming method, HeavyFinance measures the amount of carbon they store. The company does this using satellite data and soil samples. Measure carbon levels in the soil before and after changes.
In the case of Ukraine, local company Agsolko verifies and issues soil carbon credits. Companies and countries buy these tokens as a way to offset their emissions.
The more carbon farmers take out of the atmosphere, the more money they can make. In war-torn Ukraine, this could be a valuable source of income.
“Switching to regenerative agriculture gives farmers the opportunity to improve their soil and store more carbon at the same time,” said Raimonas Noreika, CEO and co-founder of HeavyFinance.
Growing soil carbon credit market
In March, HeavyFinance secured debt financing of €50 million, of which €20 million was raised from the European Investment Fund (EIF). The company has already added 250,000 hectares of land to its carbon farming program. Includes countries such as Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Portugal.
Lithuanian companies are not the only ones betting big on soil carbon credits. His Agreena, a Danish soil carbon credit provider, 2 million hectares A farmland that is managed. Across the Atlantic, U.S.-based Indigo Inc. billions of millions Give a few bucks to your own soil carbon market.
Proponents argue that soil carbon credits provide a way to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions and improve cash flow for struggling farmers.However, some critics question The science behind it.
The issuance of soil carbon credits is based on rough estimates of how much carbon is stored. While technologies such as satellites and drones are improving coverage, it remains impractical to measure every field or plot of soil.Furthermore, researchers are still I don't fully understand The science of how soil stores and releases carbon.
Nevertheless, purchasers of soil carbon credits view soil carbon credits as a safer option compared to forest offset credits, which are issued in exchange for protecting forests at risk of destruction. There is.Publisher is affected Enhanced monitoring The value of these credits became so inflated that many companies stopped purchasing them.
Heavy Finance estimates that applying regenerative methods across Ukraine's agricultural land could reduce CO2 emissions by 757.7 million tons. This is equivalent to Germany's total annual carbon emissions.
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