General Vision and solution Rabo Carbon Bank
Just imagine an agricultural sector that emits far fewer greenhouse gases (GHG), achieves higher crop yields and generates extra income with credits generated by carbon farming. This triple dividend sounds like an unattainable dream, but it is not. It is in fact possible. Rabo Carbon Bank is already working on this threefold solution today, together with our agricultural and other customers in the food supply chain. How? More on that in a moment.
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First: why are we doing this? To help combat climate change. Scientists predict that climate change will make the weather more extreme with more frequent and more severe natural disasters. The food chain represents more than a quarter of global GHG emissions. Within the next two decades the global demand for food is projected to double. This means agriculture will have to become more productive while reducing its environmental impact.
So, agriculture is critical in combatting climate change ……but agriculture can’t make the necessary switch on their own and need to be empowered to succeed. Soils and farm level interventions provide a means to reduce the environmental pressure of food production. Regenerative farming, like reducing tillage, crop rotations and planting cover crops, has proven to reduce agriculture's own footprint as well as compensation for carbon generated by other industries. And with lots of co-benefits like biodiversity, water management and more nutritional quality.
Rabo Carbon Bank enables farmers to transition to carbon farming. We empower farmers to adopt regenerative farming practices and help them to make their efforts tangible and verifiable. Then the resulting carbon reductions and removals can be sold in form of carbon credits both within and outside food supply chains.
Next to removing existing GHG emissions from the atmosphere and storing them in soils and trees, Rabo Carbon Bank aims to reduce GHG emissions that enter the atmosphere. By decarbonizing food supply chains we reduce scope III emissions. The majority of emissions (over 80 percent) come from upstream food production and associated land use and that is considered scope III for large food corporates. We enable these corporates to achieve scope III reduction by setting up projects and by incentivizing farmers and other suppliers upstream to participate. Also we make sure that these corporates are able to claim reduction and that farmers get paid for these so called reduction units.
We believe this is the future of Food and Agri. Will you join us in working towards this sustainable future?