From the TV presenters of Countryfile to the ever-escalating claims of political parties in the last UK elections, it seems everyone wants to plant more trees. Reasons vary from carbon capture, amenity, and biodiversity to production of usable timber, as do levels of ambition.
Amongst the most widely quoted targets, The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) say that UK needs 30K Ha of new woodland a year to 2050 as part of a suite of land use changes to meet the UKs commitment to become Zero Carbon. This afforestation is predicted to account for the largest share of the forecast £39 Bn cost, the majority of that being spent on land acquisition. This presumes that either we expand the public estate or encourage land acquisition by external investors.
Experience from solar and wind farms suggests that this will be expensive, slow, and unpopular with some existing landowners, particularly farmers. Nonetheless there is considerable pressure on farmers from Brexit and existing financial challenges particularly of upland farming are severe in Wales.
Based upon the above, our approach is to solve two problems together. Woodland creation for a range of benefits, providing the means for farm transformation, while avoiding the expense and social disruption of land acquisition.
Promising lower costs of delivered woodland and a wide range of associated benefits, the approach has much to recommend it, subject to its financial viability.
This report reviews opportunities and challenges through the lens of financial viability.
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Carbon Storage Contract
The future building stock is the most effective and most immediate opportunity for carbon reduction and long-term carbon storage. By creating a new economic model for monetising the carbon reduction and storage capacity of the future building stock, the use and specification of low-carbon and carbon-storing materials could be incentivised.
Woodknowledge Wales have been working with providers of a voluntary carbon marketplace that pairs business buyers with building projects that demonstrate meaningful carbon reduction and carbon storage (30+ years). To demonstrate the viability and potential economic incentive, we have developed this exemplar carbon storage contract based on a recent social housing development in Llanbedr, Wales.
The goals are:
- To change the financial equitation for developers, architects, engineers, and builders to use more low-carbon and carbon storing building materials.
- To enable businesses to achieve their carbon reduction goals by purchasing reliable, verifiable, and asset-backed carbon reduction and storage contracts (CRSCs).
The building industry has adopted EN 15978 as the platinum standard for quantifying CO2 avoidance and CO2 storage which allows this mechanism to work internationally.
For further information, please get in touch: info@woodknowledge.wales.
Capturing Carbon: Investing in Woodlands—An Options Analysis for Welsh Housing Associations
New woodland creation is one of the most cost-effective ways of reducing carbon emissions and offsetting our nation’s carbon footprint. The combination of an undersupply of our own timber in Wales and the ambitions of Wales and the Welsh Government to create new woodlands means that an organisation interested in creating new woodlands can play a pivoting role in combating climate change.
Woodlands have proven an attractive alternative asset for long-term investors, as they provide the opportunity to benefit from the value of a naturally growing commodity and the security of ownership of the underlying land. Woodlands have multiple benefits and these can be reaped in a way that makes a financial return for the investors.
A very new and interesting market is the trading of carbon. The sale of carbon credits allows landowners who create new woodlands to increase their financial returns by selling both timber and non-timber products. Government forecasts suggest these values could rise five-fold over a 40-year period which will have a significant impact on the profitability of a woodland creation project.
This document explores three investment options for Housing Associations
- Creating woodland by acquiring land.
- Creating new woodland through novel collaboration with the public sector e.g. NRW, Local Authorities etc.
- Acquiring existing woodland.
