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.
*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:
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.
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.
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.
We believe that it is the responsibility of businesses to do all they can to understand their own carbon emissions and to take action reduce these wherever they can. Our goal is to encourage all those we partner with to both understand and reduce their own impact AND to invest in protecting and restoring nature.
More than Carbon news
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