Global carbon project developer South Pole and agricultural tech company Regrow Ag work together to scale the adoption of regenerative agriculture.
South Pole is a global developer of carbon projects and climate solutions provider with 20 years of experience.
Its project development covers various areas including:
- sustainable agriculture
- forest conservation
- waste management
- energy efficiency
- renewable energy
The firm also advises thousands of companies on their journey to reach net zero emissions.
The partnership with Regrow Ag will allow South Pole’s projects to get access to the latest scientific and technological best practices for agricultural project monitoring and emissions accounting.
Regrow Ag is a tech company that seeks to boost regenerative agriculture practices and make them available across the globe. It uses science and technology to develop solutions across all aspects of the supply chain, from growers to global food companies.
South Pole’s CEO, Renat Heuberger remarked about the partnership:
“As an early advocate for and developer of agriculture projects that help lower emissions and generate carbon offsets, I am thrilled to see us partnering with Regrow to evolve industry best practices.”
Regrow’s MRV Platform
Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) is a critical element in climate mitigation efforts. It refers to the multi-step process to measure the number of emissions reduced by a project like reforestation.
The findings are then reported to a 3rd-party that verifies the report so that the results can be certified and carbon credits can be issued.
It seeks to prove that activity has actually avoided or removed emissions. Only by then that those reductions can be converted into credits with monetary value.
- In a sense, MRV is the key to unlocking climate finance. It helps carbon project developers, brokers, and buyers ensure the quality of carbon credits.
Regrow’s proprietary MRV platform will enable agriculture projects to scale up by using science and technology in novel ways.
It gives farmers scenario planning tools and measures the environmental impact assessment of practices that are most suitable for their operations.
The MRV tool enhances scalability by reducing the need for manual soil sampling. It also provides a data collection and modeling system that’s replicable on different soil and crop types.
The key aspects of Regrow’s MRV are transparency and quantifiable uncertainty.
Transparency and integrity come with the MRV’s independence. This means it has not been developed by the entities that set credit prices.
Quantifiable uncertainty is the ability to quantify how confident the verification software is in estimating the amount of carbon that the farm’s soil sequesters or stores.
- The lower the uncertainty, the more credits can be issued to the farmer.
MRV doesn’t rely on costly field visits and laboratory soil testing. Instead, it takes advantage of the latest tech in farm digitization, remote sensing, and soil modeling.
ICROA-endorsed certification standards recognize the scientific rigor of Regrow’s MRV. These standards include the Climate Action Reserve, one of the best carbon registries.
By using the latest in satellite monitoring and crop detention in regenerative agriculture, Regrow can help South Pole meet the stricter rules of carbon certification standards.
The tech company will do this by:
- contributing to the design of South Pole’s project monitoring protocols,
- calibrating models for the measurement of carbon stock, and
- verifying the adoption of regenerative farming practices.
These will allow South Pole to continue to develop and implement best-practice agricultural carbon projects.
And that involves providing the developer’s partners and farmers with access to various streams of sustainable finance.
Scaling up Regenerative Agriculture
Speaking for Regrow, its CEO Anastasia Volkova said that they’re excited to “bring high quality, scalable agricultural carbon projects to the market”.
Regrow believes that working together to scale regenerative agriculture is a decarbonization opportunity that supports sustainable farming.
Regenerative farming practices let ecosystems store CO2 by using soil as a carbon sink, literally. This approach also helps promote biodiversity.
South Pole’s partnership with Regrow to boost regenerative agriculture will also empower more farmers help in fighting climate change by:
- Harnessing the latest in technological and scientific advances to improve the accuracy of carbon models,
- Capturing data more efficiently, and
- Making programs accessible to smaller landowners.
Thus, the companies’ combined expertise can help ensure a brighter future for agricultural carbon projects.