Why we need qualitative carbon and plastic credits to tackle climate change and global wastes pollution.

 With PUR, we have been pioneering qualitative climate compensation projects, in particular Insetting (within the supply chains of companies) via Nature Based Solutions, such as Agroforestry, Reforestation, Conservation and Regenerative Agriculture. We do so by having our projects certified by third parties according to the most demanding certification standards of the sector like Verra or Gold Standard.

We work exclusively with small-scale farmers, who are disadvantaged and marginalized and most affected by climate change while they are the least responsible for it. We take pride in leading the way for holistic and impactful projects, generating a strong sense of purpose within our team, partners and society.

Our projects are now considered as the most qualitative, additional and generating maximum social and environmental impacts globally. Insetting, which we pioneered, is now recognized and prized as a privileged way to reduce emissions of a company within its Science Based Targets. And removals like tree planting are now the core of what is recommended to reach Net Zero. This means our early vision on Insetting via removals like tree planting is now fully recognized by the industry and society at large. This is very encouraging for the future.

 The carbon credits that projects deliver are just a proof of work of carbon impact, but our mission goes way beyond sequestering carbon. Our goal is to support the sustainable development of small-scale farmers and to contribute to the transition in sustainable agriculture practices within companies supply chains. And every day we see concrete achievements in that direction, so it brings us hope, despite the level of the challenges which remains huge.

 In the same way, for three years now, we have been pioneering, with Second Life, the development of ocean plastics collection and recycling projects, in Thailand and Indonesia. Verra, the leading standard setting organization for carbon, issued in January 2021 a Plastic Reduction Standard, which allows to certify plastic wastes collection and recycling projects by third parties, in the same way as for carbon.

With Second Life, our project in Thailand has been the first in the World to be certified. Here again, we support in priority very poor communities who contribute to the collection, transport and recycling of plastic wastes, from islands and remote beaches. Thanks to the sale of plastic credits to corporates, we are in capacity to generate additional volumes of plastic wastes collected and recycled, while they would be burnt in the open air or landfilled otherwise. Again, generating credits is not a goal as such, but rather to support local communities in being in capacity to collect and recycle the very large amounts of ocean plastics landing on their beaches and islands, while they are mostly not responsible of generating these wastes, and not helped by their government or the private sector to collect them. Thanks to selling plastic credits, we can support them develop circular supply chains for these wastes.

 In both cases, whether carbon or plastic, the priority remains first on reducing our footprint, the offsetting is only complementary, to compensate for what we can't reduce. In both cases, we see that many projects in the field are not additional, not impactful and cannot provide traceability and certified proof of work by third parties for what they do. This creates a risk on the image of both carbon and plastic credits. In both cases, there is a need to raise the bar in terms of standards, and force organizations to be certified by third parties, to avoid any scandal in the future. What is at stake is the future of climate action and wastes management, beyond business as usual. Offsets have often been criticized, with a reason, given there are deviances and frauds in this field by trading companies and project developers who do not abide by the basic rules of additionality, transparency, traceability and third party certification. This issue has to be tackled.

 But apart from these deviant projects,  the compensation mechanism remains today the one mobilizing most of the funding to tackle climate change. Government and individuals are almost absent from concrete actions in the field. So, this market-based approach represents most of the efforts and impacts brought to tackle these stakes.

We need these standardized certifiable systems if we want to build credible and measurable impact projects and raise more funding for them. Let's hope plastic recycling project developers will follow this path, to give more legitimacy and credibility to the sector. What is at stake is our common future in the face of climate change and global wastes pollution. In the name of the communities, we work with, long live qualitative credits mechanisms! For our own Good and generations to come.