Solar Energy Limited: Planktos Generating Carbon Credits
From the German EcoReporter, Solar Energy Limited: Planktos Generating Carbon Credits.
California based ocean and forest restoration firm Planktos, Inc. today announced the formation of a joint venture with Klimafa, Inc., a carbon forestry firm, that is in the process of working with Hungary’s government to turn large tracts of degraded land and retired pasturage into protected mixed growth woodlands. Planktos, a wholly owned subsidiary of Solar Energy Limited, will earn up to an 80% equity interest in Klimafa in return for arranging financing for the venture, primarily through the pre-sale of carbon credits, and for advancing initial working capital.
Eighty-five percent of Hungary was once crowned with old growth forests of oak, beech and poplar, but today less than 17% of wooded land remains. Most native forest was sacrificed to farming, but the terms of Hungary’s recent entry into the European Union now stipulate the permanent retirement of nearly one million hectares of this agricultural land. Given Planktos’ and Klimafa’s advanced carbon forestry techniques and governmental parkland protection, each hectare of this terrain could sequester up to 1000 tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the next 60 years and generate equivalent greenhouse gas emission offset credits in the European Union Emission Trading System (EUETS). Such credits are currently trading at approximately EUR 25/ton CO2e across most Kyoto certified European exchanges.
-DS
Technorati Tags: carbon credits, CO2, emissions trading, environment, EU, Europe, global warming, Hungary, Kyoto Protocol, politics, reforestation
