Canada’s burning forests remind us why we need carbon crediting

The author contends that carbon markets are essential for restoring forests as carbon sinks and argues that 'non-permanence buffer pools' mitigate the risk of carbon loss from wildfires. The text highlights that companies using carbon credits tend to decarbonize faster and describes the 'climatic impact-driver' (CID) approach used by Verra to improve risk assessments based on IPCC science.

• Carbon markets can help flip land systems back to being carbon sinks, which the IPCC identifies as a necessity to meet climate challenges, especially since forests became a net source of greenhouse gas emissions by 1979.
• To address the risk of forest loss from catastrophes like fire or hurricanes, Verra's Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) utilizes a "non-permanence buffer pool." This mechanism cancels credits equal to the size of any carbon loss to ensure the net environmental benefit is maintained.
• The BigCoast Forest Climate Initiative, a 40,000-hectare project, is cited as the only project to suffer a loss during the 2023 Canadian fires, with an estimated loss of up to 100 hectares, or 0.25% of its area.
• Verra is implementing a "climatic impact-driver" (CID) approach to risk estimation, which categorizes risk into 33 distinct drivers such as drought and extreme heat. This approach incorporates IPCC science and a digital tool developed with scientist Daniel Ruiz-Carrascal, scheduled for availability in August 2023.
• Research from Trove Research indicates that companies that are material users of carbon credits decarbonize at twice the speed of companies that do not use them.

APA

Vinke, C. (2023). Canada’s burning forests remind us why we need carbon crediting. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/wildfires-forests-carbon-crediting/

Chicago

Vinke, Candace. Canada’s burning forests remind us why we need carbon crediting. World Economic Forum, 2023. https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/wildfires-forests-carbon-crediting/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Vinke |first1=Candace |title=Canada’s burning forests remind us why we need carbon crediting |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=31 July 2023 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/wildfires-forests-carbon-crediting/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{vinke2023canadas, author = {Vinke, Candace}, title = {{Canada’s burning forests remind us why we need carbon crediting}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2023}, month = jul, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/climate-action/wildfires-forests-carbon-crediting/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }