BP has brought the Americas’ largest developer of forest-based carbon offset projects into its stable, having snapped up a majority stake in Finite Carbon through its business accelerator Launchpad, the oil and gas giant announced last week.
The deal — financial details for which weren’t disclosed — goals to support the expansion of Finite Carbon, which identifies and develops projects that enable landowners to generate revenue from the protection, restoration and sustainable management of forests, BP said.
The move, which builds on BP’s existing interest in the corporate, will see Finite Carbon brought under the BP umbrella inside its Launchpad division.
It marks the newest move from a serious fossil fuel firm into the burgeoning carbon offsets market, as carbon intensive corporations increasingly seek to take a position in natural solutions comparable to forest, peatland and mangrove restoration in order to offset emissions on their pathway towards net-zero targets.
The practice stays hugely controversial, with many environmental campaigners arguing the approach distracts from the necessity to cut emissions and sometimes fails to deliver promised emissions reductions.
But advocates of offsets maintain they supply a way of tackling emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors, protecting and expanding forests, and enhancing biodiversity and climate resilience.
Putting a price on carbon could make it possible for anyone with the flexibility to guard, plant or improve forests to generate revenue from their efforts … Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a infrastructure to quantify, monitor and confirm these actions.
Some carbon intensive firms even have argued that investments in offsets aren’t a alternative for wider efforts to curb emissions. Earlier this 12 months BP promised a “rapid transition” to net-zero by 2050 by stepping up its investment in non-oil and gas activities, before announcing plans over the summer to chop its oil and gas production by 40 percent while ramping up clean energy and technology investment over the following decade, including in nature-based solutions.
David Eyton, BP’s executive vice chairman of innovation and engineering, said Finite Carbon had the potential to construct a world platform for managing and financing natural climate solutions.
“Deepening our partnership will allow them to speed up their development and expansion,” he said. “Finite Carbon’s progression through BP — from venturing investment to majority ownership and introduction to Launchpad — is a terrific example of how we’re applying our unique innovation ecosystem to foster innovation and construct material energy businesses in support of our net-zero ambition.”
Finite Carbon has 50 forest projects across 3 million acres within the U.S., which it claims have registered greater than 70 independently verified offset schemes and generated greater than $500 million in revenue for landowners.
By teaming up with BP, Finite Carbon said it might profit from the oil giant’s global footprint and technological infrastructure to assist expand its operations and scale up the voluntary carbon market.
Sean Carney, the corporate’s founder, explained the increased investment from BP would help deliver an extra $1 billion in revenues to landowners by 2030 from its existing business, in addition to from its latest web-based CORE Carbon platform that goals to assist smaller landowners access the offset market.
“Putting a price on carbon could make it possible for anyone with the flexibility to guard, plant or improve forests to generate revenue from their efforts,” he said. “Nonetheless, there is no such thing as a infrastructure to quantify, monitor and confirm these actions. Due to this unique partnership with BP, Finite Carbon now has the resources of a world energy company behind it to assist address this enormous environmental challenge and help small landowners access this market.”
