Background
Enhancing soil health can contribute to improve agricultural productivity as well as soil carbon sequestration. UNFCCC’s Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture, Sustainable Development Goal 15 and the Land Degradation Neutrality framework demonstrate the increasing attention of policy makers to the importance of soil carbon for land productivity and food security. In addition to that, the 4 per 1000 Initiative has been promoting a global partnership intending to facilitate efforts across multiple stakeholders to promote action at all levels to increase soil carbon stocks globally. Despite the broad international attention, a large gap remains between the potential of soil carbon sequestration and implementation of practices on the ground. As the investment community seeks to improve its climate impacts, many organizations are now asking how to best support implementation of those practices. Diverse opportunities for public and private finance exist and are emerging. For example, the UNCCD set up the Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) Fund as an “impact investment fund blending resources from the public, private and philanthropic sectors in support of achieving LDN through sustainable land management and land restoration projects undertaken by the private sector worldwide”. One major constraint has been the need of transparent, accurate, consistent and comparable methods for measuring, reporting and verifying (MRV) changes in soil carbon stocks, notably through the use of new technologies as well as to enable standardized verification protocols at low transaction costs. Promising approaches combine pragmatic and user-friendly tools with site-specific modelling, and making use of geospatial data sources and blockchain technology. |
Purpose of the webinar
The purpose of this webinar is to support investment-oriented actions promoting soil health and carbon storage by improving the accounting of soil carbon sequestration. We seek to answer the question: How can soil carbon accounting improve to support investment-oriented actions promoting soil health and carbon storage? Participants will examine opportunities for action using novel methods and frontier technologies that enable linking technical practices with finance and policy for accurate and cost-efficient SOC accounting. Facilitation and reporting CCAFS, The Nature Conservancy, 4 per 1000 Executive Secretariat and The World Bank Date 10th September 2020 10 AM - 1:15 PM EDT Place Zoom Webinar |