Treeconomy's project revolves around the need for enhanced monitoring of biodiversity data within the rapidly growing and maturing natural capital/nature-based solutions investment sector. Significant institutional investment is now being made into natural capital, with the majority of this focussed on carbon removal or avoided CO2 emissions schemes as the primary ecosystem service. While admirable and much needed, there is a substantial risk of focussing on carbon as the only attribute for projects, leading to actions that actually degrade a landscape (e.g. the planting of non-native monoculture plantations) with significant long-term detrimental impacts on mitigation actions as well as resilience to future shocks (e.g. climate change, pests, disease). The first step is to be able to quantify and track biodiversity attributes at high resolution within project sites, such as forest schemes or landscape regeneration. The second half of the proposal is to then consider how these data are embedded into project characteristics and can therefore become actionable and have a material financial consideration. Treeconomy proposes the use of smart contracts and wider blockchain adoption for this. Being able to immutably encode biodiversity metadata into projects or to be encoded into smart carbon credits would permanently embed these attributes in financial transactions and enable tracking through supply chains, an increasingly important consideration for financial institutions. The customers in mind are asset managers branching into the natural capital sector. There is a secondary customer - the Government, specifically Defra. The UK Government is rolling out the Environmental Land Management System, conceived as a "public payments for public goods programme" replacing the EU Common Agricultural Policy for land-based subsidies. These public goods include the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity. Measurement and reliable tracking of ecosystem services will be absolutely vital to the successful realisation of ELMS. Our proposed solution could lay the groundwork for automated payments based on real-world monitoring data, to the extent that Defra subsidy payments can be dynamically updated based on location and quantity of environmental goods that were achieved or supported. This would tackle impact disclosures, climate outcome and transition risks associated with climate mitigation activities. The solution is built around high resolution but scalable remote sensing data, with smart contracts designed to track ecosystem service impacts through digital supply chains for ecosystem service payments.

The project focuses on the increasing need for trust and transparency in the nature-based carbon removal market. The market globally for voluntary carbon removal has doubled in the past year to just over $1bn and is set to increase by 2030 to a $50bn market, the majority of which will come from lower-cost natural solutions (such as tree planting, peat restoration, mangrove restoration and other schemes). The importance of such actions is now clearly underlined by the IPCC reports stating that Paris alignment - limiting global warming to 2C and aiming for 1.5C - is no longer possible without actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This is underlined at a national level with the UK Climate Change Committee's target for 30,000ha of tree planting per year as well as restoring upland peat by 50% and lowland peat by 25%. Two fundamental technical issues arise from this: 1\. How do we accurately calculate the CO2 removed and stored in these complex ecosystems?, and 2\. How do we then track this action over time and ensure that payment, via carbon offset credits, are accurately tracked through supply chains as the market grows rapidly? This is a problem for both corporate offset buyers who are set to be the main buyer and liability holder for their emissions and the carbon offsets they use to remove unavoidable emissions, but also policy makers as they decide on incentive, subsidy and international trade schemes. This project is chiefly focused on developing the Treeconomy Sherwood Platform, a software solution designed to solve these two challenges. Treeconomy has built the remote sensing tools to analyse nature-based carbon removal projects and more robustly quantify the carbon stored within them. We have the core solution for forest-based projects at prototype stage and are currently in an R&D stage for peat projects. This project focuses on the need for smart databasing to then catalogue the data collected at the asset level, to monitor and update this data over time, and to track transactions in an automated manner. The solution proposed involves the use of a sustainable blockchain application and integration with our remote sensing data. The end solution will be an automated carbon offset tracking software system, with the power to geotag and trace every tonne of CO2 back to the exact tree, trees or area of land that the credit stems from - a radical increase in accuracy and transparency.

The project focuses on the increasing need for trust and transparency in the nature-based carbon removal market. The market globally for voluntary carbon removal has doubled in the past year to just over $1bn and is set to increase by 2030 to a $50bn market, the majority of which will come from lower-cost natural solutions (such as tree planting, peat restoration, mangrove restoration and other schemes). The importance of such actions is now clearly underlined by the IPCC reports stating that Paris alignment - limiting global warming to 2C and aiming for 1.5C - is no longer possible without actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This is underlined at a national level with the UK Climate Change Committee's target for 30,000ha of tree planting per year as well as restoring upland peat by 50% and lowland peat by 25%. Two fundamental technical issues arise from this: 1\. How do we accurately calculate the CO2 removed and stored in these complex ecosystems?, and 2\. How do we then track this action over time and ensure that payment, via carbon offset credits, are accurately tracked through supply chains as the market grows rapidly? This is a problem for both corporate offset buyers who are set to be the main buyer and liability holder for their emissions and the carbon offsets they use to remove unavoidable emissions, but also policy makers as they decide on incentive, subsidy and international trade schemes. This project is chiefly focused on developing the Treeconomy Sherwood Platform, a software solution designed to solve these two challenges. Treeconomy has built the remote sensing tools to analyse nature-based carbon removal projects and more robustly quantify the carbon stored within them. We have the core solution for forest-based projects at prototype stage and are currently in an R&D stage for peat projects. This project focuses on the need for smart databasing to then catalogue the data collected at the asset level, to monitor and update this data over time, and to track transactions in an automated manner. The solution proposed involves the use of a sustainable blockchain application and integration with our remote sensing data. The end solution will be an automated carbon offset tracking software system, with the power to geotag and trace every tonne of CO2 back to the exact tree, trees or area of land that the credit stems from - a radical increase in accuracy and transparency.

The project focuses on the increasing need for trust and transparency in the nature-based carbon removal market. The market globally for voluntary carbon removal has doubled in the past year to just over $1bn and is set to increase by 2030 to a $50bn market, the majority of which will come from lower-cost natural solutions (such as tree planting, peat restoration, mangrove restoration and other schemes). The importance of such actions is now clearly underlined by the IPCC reports stating that Paris alignment - limiting global warming to 2C and aiming for 1.5C - is no longer possible without actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This is underlined at a national level with the UK Climate Change Committee's target for 30,000ha of tree planting per year as well as restoring upland peat by 50% and lowland peat by 25%. Two fundamental technical issues arise from this: 1\. How do we accurately calculate the CO2 removed and stored in these complex ecosystems?, and 2\. How do we then track this action over time and ensure that payment, via carbon offset credits, are accurately tracked through supply chains as the market grows rapidly? This is a problem for both corporate offset buyers who are set to be the main buyer and liability holder for their emissions and the carbon offsets they use to remove unavoidable emissions, but also policy makers as they decide on incentive, subsidy and international trade schemes. This project is chiefly focused on developing the Treeconomy Sherwood Platform, a software solution designed to solve these two challenges. Treeconomy has built the remote sensing tools to analyse nature-based carbon removal projects and more robustly quantify the carbon stored within them. We have the core solution for forest-based projects at prototype stage and are currently in an R&D stage for peat projects. This project focuses on the need for smart databasing to then catalogue the data collected at the asset level, to monitor and update this data over time, and to track transactions in an automated manner. The solution proposed involves the use of a sustainable blockchain application and integration with our remote sensing data. The end solution will be an automated carbon offset tracking software system, with the power to geotag and trace every tonne of CO2 back to the exact tree, trees or area of land that the credit stems from - a radical increase in accuracy and transparency.

The project focuses on the increasing need for trust and transparency in the nature-based carbon removal market. The market globally for voluntary carbon removal has doubled in the past year to just over $1bn and is set to increase by 2030 to a $50bn market, the majority of which will come from lower-cost natural solutions (such as tree planting, peat restoration, mangrove restoration and other schemes). The importance of such actions is now clearly underlined by the IPCC reports stating that Paris alignment - limiting global warming to 2C and aiming for 1.5C - is no longer possible without actively removing CO2 from the atmosphere. This is underlined at a national level with the UK Climate Change Committee's target for 30,000ha of tree planting per year as well as restoring upland peat by 50% and lowland peat by 25%. Two fundamental technical issues arise from this: 1\. How do we accurately calculate the CO2 removed and stored in these complex ecosystems?, and 2\. How do we then track this action over time and ensure that payment, via carbon offset credits, are accurately tracked through supply chains as the market grows rapidly? This is a problem for both corporate offset buyers who are set to be the main buyer and liability holder for their emissions and the carbon offsets they use to remove unavoidable emissions, but also policy makers as they decide on incentive, subsidy and international trade schemes. This project is chiefly focused on developing the Treeconomy Sherwood Platform, a software solution designed to solve these two challenges. Treeconomy has built the remote sensing tools to analyse nature-based carbon removal projects and more robustly quantify the carbon stored within them. We have the core solution for forest-based projects at prototype stage and are currently in an R&D stage for peat projects. This project focuses on the need for smart databasing to then catalogue the data collected at the asset level, to monitor and update this data over time, and to track transactions in an automated manner. The solution proposed involves the use of a sustainable blockchain application and integration with our remote sensing data. The end solution will be an automated carbon offset tracking software system, with the power to geotag and trace every tonne of CO2 back to the exact tree, trees or area of land that the credit stems from - a radical increase in accuracy and transparency.

Treeconomy's project revolves around the need for enhanced monitoring of biodiversity data within the rapidly growing and maturing natural capital/nature-based solutions investment sector. Significant institutional investment is now being made into natural capital, with the majority of this focussed on carbon removal or avoided CO2 emissions schemes as the primary ecosystem service. While admirable and much needed, there is a substantial risk of focussing on carbon as the only attribute for projects, leading to actions that actually degrade a landscape (e.g. the planting of non-native monoculture plantations) with significant long-term detrimental impacts on mitigation actions as well as resilience to future shocks (e.g. climate change, pests, disease). The first step is to be able to quantify and track biodiversity attributes at high resolution within project sites, such as forest schemes or landscape regeneration. The second half of the proposal is to then consider how these data are embedded into project characteristics and can therefore become actionable and have a material financial consideration. Treeconomy proposes the use of smart contracts and wider blockchain adoption for this. Being able to immutably encode biodiversity metadata into projects or to be encoded into smart carbon credits would permanently embed these attributes in financial transactions and enable tracking through supply chains, an increasingly important consideration for financial institutions. The customers in mind are asset managers branching into the natural capital sector. There is a secondary customer - the Government, specifically Defra. The UK Government is rolling out the Environmental Land Management System, conceived as a "public payments for public goods programme" replacing the EU Common Agricultural Policy for land-based subsidies. These public goods include the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity. Measurement and reliable tracking of ecosystem services will be absolutely vital to the successful realisation of ELMS. Our proposed solution could lay the groundwork for automated payments based on real-world monitoring data, to the extent that Defra subsidy payments can be dynamically updated based on location and quantity of environmental goods that were achieved or supported. This would tackle impact disclosures, climate outcome and transition risks associated with climate mitigation activities. The solution is built around high resolution but scalable remote sensing data, with smart contracts designed to track ecosystem service impacts through digital supply chains for ecosystem service payments.

Treeconomy's project revolves around the need for enhanced monitoring of biodiversity data within the rapidly growing and maturing natural capital/nature-based solutions investment sector. Significant institutional investment is now being made into natural capital, with the majority of this focussed on carbon removal or avoided CO2 emissions schemes as the primary ecosystem service. While admirable and much needed, there is a substantial risk of focussing on carbon as the only attribute for projects, leading to actions that actually degrade a landscape (e.g. the planting of non-native monoculture plantations) with significant long-term detrimental impacts on mitigation actions as well as resilience to future shocks (e.g. climate change, pests, disease). The first step is to be able to quantify and track biodiversity attributes at high resolution within project sites, such as forest schemes or landscape regeneration. The second half of the proposal is to then consider how these data are embedded into project characteristics and can therefore become actionable and have a material financial consideration. Treeconomy proposes the use of smart contracts and wider blockchain adoption for this. Being able to immutably encode biodiversity metadata into projects or to be encoded into smart carbon credits would permanently embed these attributes in financial transactions and enable tracking through supply chains, an increasingly important consideration for financial institutions. The customers in mind are asset managers branching into the natural capital sector. There is a secondary customer - the Government, specifically Defra. The UK Government is rolling out the Environmental Land Management System, conceived as a "public payments for public goods programme" replacing the EU Common Agricultural Policy for land-based subsidies. These public goods include the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity. Measurement and reliable tracking of ecosystem services will be absolutely vital to the successful realisation of ELMS. Our proposed solution could lay the groundwork for automated payments based on real-world monitoring data, to the extent that Defra subsidy payments can be dynamically updated based on location and quantity of environmental goods that were achieved or supported. This would tackle impact disclosures, climate outcome and transition risks associated with climate mitigation activities. The solution is built around high resolution but scalable remote sensing data, with smart contracts designed to track ecosystem service impacts through digital supply chains for ecosystem service payments.

Treeconomy's project revolves around the need for enhanced monitoring of biodiversity data within the rapidly growing and maturing natural capital/nature-based solutions investment sector. Significant institutional investment is now being made into natural capital, with the majority of this focussed on carbon removal or avoided CO2 emissions schemes as the primary ecosystem service. While admirable and much needed, there is a substantial risk of focussing on carbon as the only attribute for projects, leading to actions that actually degrade a landscape (e.g. the planting of non-native monoculture plantations) with significant long-term detrimental impacts on mitigation actions as well as resilience to future shocks (e.g. climate change, pests, disease). The first step is to be able to quantify and track biodiversity attributes at high resolution within project sites, such as forest schemes or landscape regeneration. The second half of the proposal is to then consider how these data are embedded into project characteristics and can therefore become actionable and have a material financial consideration. Treeconomy proposes the use of smart contracts and wider blockchain adoption for this. Being able to immutably encode biodiversity metadata into projects or to be encoded into smart carbon credits would permanently embed these attributes in financial transactions and enable tracking through supply chains, an increasingly important consideration for financial institutions. The customers in mind are asset managers branching into the natural capital sector. There is a secondary customer - the Government, specifically Defra. The UK Government is rolling out the Environmental Land Management System, conceived as a "public payments for public goods programme" replacing the EU Common Agricultural Policy for land-based subsidies. These public goods include the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity. Measurement and reliable tracking of ecosystem services will be absolutely vital to the successful realisation of ELMS. Our proposed solution could lay the groundwork for automated payments based on real-world monitoring data, to the extent that Defra subsidy payments can be dynamically updated based on location and quantity of environmental goods that were achieved or supported. This would tackle impact disclosures, climate outcome and transition risks associated with climate mitigation activities. The solution is built around high resolution but scalable remote sensing data, with smart contracts designed to track ecosystem service impacts through digital supply chains for ecosystem service payments.

* This project will provide a robust and quantitative assessment of nature-based carbon capture in the UK, and the requirements for scaleup of this method for meaningful climate change mitigation & adaptation * We will build a quantitative model of tree carbon capture using a mix of historical data through the Woodland Carbon Code, drone-LiDAR surveys of existing woodlands, and satellite imagery. * From this ecological & technological model we can design the appropriate financial model needed to increase afforestation by landowners and landowning businesses, similar to the success seen in the renewable energy sector with wind and solar in the UK. * For background: the UK has set a legally binding 2050 Net Zero target. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) sets 5 year budgets and recommended actions to achieve this target. Currently, to reach net zero, the CCC recommends 30,000 hectares (ha) of trees are planted annually in the UK. However, only 13,400ha were planted in 2019\. There is clearly a tree-incentive problem, and after discussions with landowners, a large part of the problem is financial compensation. The overall outcome of the project will be an appropriate financially engineered solution to compensate landowners and businesses for the climate action, and enormously valuable public good, that they undertake by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It will provide a base for active impact investment into this sector, and place the UK as a leading technical expert in nature-based carbon capture & storage. * The capture and storage of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is fundamental to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees celsius, as demonstrated in the IPCC special report (2018) and supported by their models. It is simply not possible to limit warming to this extent without carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, therefore there is an imperative to develop effective methods to do this. Indeed, there are less and less scenarios where limiting to 2 degrees celsius can be achieved without carbon removal. * Nature-based methods for CO2 removal, such as planting trees and mangrove forests, can provide more than 1/3rd of the cost effective mitigation required between now and 2030\. Therefore, it makes financial sense to focus on this methods first. In order to do this in a scientifically robust manner, we need better and more scalable methods to attest and attribute carbon removal to these sites. Despite being called nature-based solutions, technology will still be required in order to ensure the necessary action is being taken - and that the action-takers are appropriately rewarded for their actions. * This project will lay the groundwork for such a methodology, and seek to go further and build the financial and commercial basis for delivery. We will both; build the technical framework for calculation, design an effective financial solution, and consider the routes to market delivery. * The outcome of this project should help landowners to 1) pay less 2) earn more, and 3) earn faster from afforestation projects.