More than Carbon

Image © Chris Scarffe

Holistic solutions for nature, climate and people

Synchronicity Earth’s More than Carbon initiative is designed to provide companies with exciting opportunities to make a positive impact for nature and climate, while also providing benefits for local communities in some of the most nature-rich environments on Earth.

Our More than Carbon initiative

The goal of More than Carbon is to provide a mechanism through which businesses can support the most effective action to protect and restore nature and mitigate the impacts of climate change in some of the world’s most biodiverse – but also most threatened – regions. The initiative places equal emphasis on nature, climate and people, supporting work to protect biodiversity, reduce the impacts of climate change and contribute to human security, health and wellbeing.

Contributing funding to our More than Carbon initiative helps businesses to balance their impact on the natural world, both in terms of their carbon emissions and their impact on nature, thereby contributing towards meeting environmental and social responsibilities.

Why More than Carbon?

Evidence of the impact the connected ecological crises of climate change and biodiversity loss are having on our lives (global pandemics, wildfires, floods, record temperatures etc.) is all around us. In response to these crises, many businesses are taking steps to better understand and mitigate the impact of their own activities – both in terms of carbon emissions and more broadly on the natural world.

In the finance sector, the development of mechanisms such as the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (and the emerging Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) along with changing attitudes, particularly among younger generations, is, for many, a wake-up call: the need to understand and – more importantly – take action to address the existential risks associated with climate change and biodiversity loss is clear; for business reasons but also simply because it is the right thing to do.

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of all historical cumulative CO2 emissions since 1850 occurred between 2010 and 2019.

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of annual emissions are from agriculture, forestry, and other land use, and around half of these are from deforestation.

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fall in monitored populations of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish between 1970 and 2016.

*IPCC, 2022. Climate Change 2022 – Mitigation of Climate Change. Summary for Policymakers | WWF, 2020. Living Planet Report

Is More than Carbon an offsetting scheme?

No. Whilst there has been some improvement in carbon-offsetting schemes, problems persist with many of them:

No requirement for companies to reduce their own emissions

Carbon credit schemes do not require companies to reduce their emissions before granting credits. Most assume that emissions in one place can be mitigated simply by planting trees elsewhere.

Accreditation can take many years, be very expensive and therefore favour large projects

Many carbon credit projects are not rigorously assessed and have long supply chains, leaving room for error and misrepresentation. The best accreditation processes are very expensive, and therefore favour large-scale programmes of work that may not have local community involvement and buy-in.

Misleading data on carbon sequestration

Many carbon credit schemes assume that trees planted are left in the ground until their death. In fact most good local restoration schemes involve a cyclical process of planting and sustainably harvesting some trees for local use, whilst also planting new trees. This can skew data on carbon sequestration.

Many projects are not concerned with biodiversity or ecological functioning

Unlike forest protection and restoration initiatives, carbon credit schemes do not necessarily protect diverse species and Earth’s ecological functioning, including watershed protection.

Lack of involvement of local communities

Some carbon credit schemes effectively ‘grab’ land from the communities living on it and prevent them from being involved in tree planting. This has knock-on effects for local communities and the environment.