Carbon sinks

THE world has largely moved on from its colonial past, but Pakistan? Not so much. For the past 75 years, the country has held on to its colonial legacy like a child clinging to their favourite stuffed toy. But here’s the thing: Pakistan’s colonial inheritance might also hold the key to a more sustainable future. Thanks to a colonial legacy, Pakistan’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have ended up with huge tracts of land. That’s where the potential for carbon credit projects comes in. With a few smart regulations, Pakistan could dive headfirst into the lucrative carbon credits market by utilising this land productively.
Pakistan has already announced some market-based instruments to attract low-carbon investments, like Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) and Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCMs). ETS is basically a cap-and-trade system that sets a limit on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted, allowing companies to buy and sell emission allowances. VCMs, on the other hand, let people trade carbon credits generated by projects that reduce or remove emissions.
The International Carbon Action Partnership notes that Pakistan has promised to work on four key areas: a domestic carbon pricing policy, an international carbon market to put Article 6 into action, an MRV framework, and knowledge management/ capacity building. But, as expected, with the development sector’s obsession with advocacy and capacity building, Pakistan has remained stuck in an endless loop of workshops and seminars that just keep rehashing the same old stuff. In the last decade, the country managed to pass just one Climate Act and took six years to establish its Climate Change Authority — that, too, on a Supreme Court directive.
Meanwhile, developed countries are showing the world what a well-functioning carbon market looks like. Take the UK, for example: its Woodland Carbon Code is a voluntary standard that doesn’t just focus on planting trees, it requires projects to demonstrate real climate benefits. Landowners must commit to maintaining the woodland for at least 50 years, and the carbon sequestration is independently verified. The Peatland Carbon Code takes a similarly rigorous approach to peatland restoration. Peatlands are incredible carbon sinks, storing more carbon per hectare than forests. Under these codes, restoration projects must adhere to strict best practices. Independent validation and verification are key — they give buyers confidence that the climate benefits are real and long-lasting. But it’s not just about carbon: projects also must show how they’re enhancing biodiversity, creating new habitats for wildlife, and even helping prevent floods by improving soil and water management.
The UK isn’t stopping there: it’s constantly innovating and refining. Take its Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs’ Nature Market Principles, for example. These principles set out clear guidelines for nature-based projects to deliver genuine, long-term benefits for the environment and local communities. Then there is BSI Flex701, a new standard for quantifying and verifying greenhouse gas removals and emissions reductions, catering to the issues of double counting of credits and additionalities from land management projects. And let’s not forget the Community Benefit Standard, a framework which requires that carbon projects engage meaningfully with local communities, respect their rights and deliver tangible benefits like job creation, improved health, and access to clean energy. Together, these initiatives are helping ensure that the carbon credits being bought and sold are the real deal.
Unfortunately, not all carbon credits are created equal. In recent years, the market has been flooded with “junk credits” — worthless offsets that do little or nothing to reduce emissions. Big corporations have been snapping these up, often with the blessing of established verification bodies, as a cheap way to claim they are going green. But savvy buyers are catching on. They are starting to demand high-quality credits that are rigorously verified and which deliver real, measurable climate benefits. They are also willing to pay for it. Wilder Carbon, a UK-based nature restoration project developer, is aiming to increase the price of its credits to £500 per PIU by 2030.
That is where Pakistan’s province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa comes in. KP is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with rising temperatures, melting glaciers, and increasing floods and droughts. The province urgently needs to restore its degraded landscapes and protect its remaining forests. The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) could be a game-changer for the province, and would bring in much-needed funding for conservation and restoration.
The author is a UK-based research scientist.
[email protected]
Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2024