With the speedy growth of the UK’s carbon market in recent years, Scottish Forestry has announced new measures to the Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) to increase scrutiny and credibility due to the demand for credits.
A government-led scheme, the WCC is a high quality standard for woodland creation projects across the UK. Landowners that meet the WCC are able to sell the carbon sequestered via Woodland Carbon Units.
Scotland’s Environment Minister Màiri McAllan said:
“It is natural for carbon standards to evolve as carbon markets develop. Tougher new tests under the Woodland Carbon Code will provide added assurance to investors, land managers and the public that carbon credits are reliable, credible and crucially, additional in our journey to Net Zero. The new tests will also encourage species diversity in woodlands, bringing benefits for biodiversity.”
The key changes to the additionality tests are:
- Simplification to make it easier for project developers and validators to use them
- Some standardisation to ensure they are applied consistently
- Changes to ensure that high land values do not skew the calculations.
These new measures will be implemented on 1 October 2022. Version 2.2 of the WCC was released on 6 May and can be accessed online.
