Farmers, foresters and other land managers are today (Wednesday
10 April) encouraged to apply for the Woodland Carbon Guarantee
scheme ahead of the eighth auction, which will take place online
from 23-29 September.
Administered by the Forestry Commission, the Woodland Carbon
Guarantee is a £50m scheme that aims to help accelerate woodland
planting rates and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and
has already resulted in nearly 3,000 hectares of new woodland
across the country.
£20m is now available as part of the eighth auction, for
farmers and land managers to create new woodlands to help tackle
the effects of climate change, providing new income in the form
of long-term payments for the amount of carbon a new woodland
will store. Woodland creation also provides a wealth of other
benefits from helping to reverse biodiversity decline and
increasing green jobs to aiding physical and mental health.
Following an online auction process, successful bidders will be
offered the option to sell woodland carbon in the form of
Woodland Carbon Units – a financial value given to each tonne of
carbon stored – to the Government up to 2055 at a guaranteed
price protected against inflation. The scheme reflects the
Government's confidence in the continued growth of markets for
woodland carbon, as landowners will continue to benefit from a
reliable revenue stream in selling carbon on the domestic market.
For the first time, the auction will be opened up to farmers,
foresters and land mangers whose projects are not currently in
receipt of Government funding to allow an even greater number of
woodlands to benefit from the auction. These projects will have
access to a higher, undisclosed reserve price per Woodland Carbon
Unit. Projects can still receive the Woodland Creation Planning
Grant to support the design process and remain eligible for this
new category.
Richard Stanford, Chief Executive of the Forestry
Commission, said:
“The Woodland Carbon Guarantee continues to be a huge success,
providing additional financial surety for nearly 3,000 hectares
of new woodland across the country, helping to address some of
society's biggest challenges including climate change and
biodiversity loss.
“The eighth auction is a great opportunity for even more farmers,
foresters and land managers to reap the benefits of this scheme
by receiving a guarantee of future additional income for
increasing tree cover across the country and I encourage as many
as possible to apply by 6 September.”
Before applying for the Guarantee, land managers will need to
have registered with the Woodland
Carbon Code, which provides the tools and information
required to verify and record the carbon they are capturing and
can sell in future.
Previous auctions have seen a considerable number of contracts
offered by the Forestry Commission to stimulate proposals for the
creation of new woodland specifically to help combat climate
change. The Government has stretching and challenging targets to
increase tree canopy and woodland cover in England to at least
16.5% by 2050, and continues to take action to meet this with
more than 15 million trees having been planted this
parliament.
Register with the Woodland
Carbon Code and apply for
the Woodland Carbon Guarantee here.
Further information:
- The prices accepted in previous auctions should not be taken
as a firm indicator of acceptable bids in any future auction.
Applicants should also be aware that the auction is a competitive
process and lower bids are more likely to be successful.
- There are 5 stages to the Woodland Carbon Guarantee process.
Please see Getting
Started with the Woodland Carbon Guarantee for further
information.
- Further details about how the eighth auction will operate
including a list of eligible tree species that can be included
within your application, can be found in the Guide to
the Eighth Auction.
- The Eighth Auction will take place from 23-29 September 2024
with an application deadline of 6 September 2024.
