As you may know, Capture is a carbon emissions tracking app that will enable users to track, reduce, and balance their personal carbon footprint. It has been described as the “FitBit” of carbon footprint calculation.
Capture’s GPS feature will track your mobility choices and generate a carbon footprint for you. From there, you can learn more about your impact on the earth and invest in carbon offsetting projects based in reforestation and clean energy.
But which projects do we have available on the platform? What impact can you make? Here we share some more information about three carefully-selected projects currently available via Capture...
Supporting Renewable Energy
The importance of renewable energy is undeniable, as it is clean, inexhaustible, and environmentally conscious energy. They are different than fossil fuels in their diversity, abundance, and potential use anywhere on the planet, but perhaps most importantly, in that they don’t produce greenhouse gases or polluting emissions. Additionally, the overall costs of different forms of renewable energy are falling at a sustainable rate.
We have selected a carbon offsetting project in Taiwan, a country plagued by severe energy challenges, particularly securing its energy supply as it has had to rely on imported energy for a large proportion of its consumption. The government is facing mounting pressure to switch to greener forms of energy to contend with worsening urban air pollution. By 2024, Taiwan hopes to increase the use of renewables in its energy mix from 6% to 20%.
The project harnesses the prevailing coastal winds of northwestern Taiwan using 29 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.3MW and a total capacity of 66.7MW, across 5 different wind forms. The project will deliver electricity to the state-owned power grid, Taipower.
Why should you invest in this project? This project aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Taiwan by replacing fossil fuel based power generation while also contributing to national and global efforts to combat climate change. Furthermore, it will boost the development of the wind energy sector in Taiwan while also providing new employment opportunities for Taiwanese locals. The project provides clean, renewable electricity to the equivalent of 41,245 households’ annual demand to the grid.
Nature-Based Solutions
The other two projects offered through Capture are nature-based solutions; reforestation and conservation - both projects, helps to reduce the amount of CO2 in the air. Carbon dioxide and methane are gases that greatly contribute to the changing climate.
Protecting existing forests and reforesting degraded agricultural land are both effective strategies to fight global warming as well as protect important species of animals.
The two projects we have selected are in Panama and North America...
Panama is a region with a high diversity of animals and plants. This project aims to combine sustainable timber and cocoa production with the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. Formerly fallow and degraded pasture land will be reforested with mostly native tree species and turned into mixed forests. Some of the land is used for sustainable and fairtrade production of organic cocoa. This means that the project will create long-term employment opportunities and includes collaboration with local indigenous communities, ensuring that the reforestation process is legitimate and lasts for decades to come.
There are both socio-economic and environmental benefits to this project.
Direct employment opportunities have been generated for 150 local people for project operations such as scouting, fire prevention measures, nutritional garden establishment and water pump maintenance. All employees receive a living wage, including health insurance and a pension fund. School fee subsidies are available through the project for the poorest quarter of the local population. This helps enrich and benefit the community, while also ensuring they are respected as key stakeholders in the reforestation of their land.
As for the environmental impact; a high share of native tree species are protected, new habitats for trees and plants are formed, new corridors for migratory species are created, whilst the trees help to control soil erosion and protect water sources for future generations to come..
Lastly, we have selected a carbon offsetting project in North America, through Pachama, a technology-verified carbon offsetting marketplace, including the protection and enhancement for four different forests throughout America, totalling over 15,000 acres.
With a mix of tree planting and sustainable forestry management, the projects have led to improved sequestration from the land, along with protecting healthy rivers and supporting threatened species such as black bears, hawks, roosevelt elk and northern spotted owl.
Pachama has developed machine learning algorithms to analyse satellite images of forests to provide accurate estimations of carbon storage and capture to provide additional verification. They give you access to a monitoring dashboard to gain visibility on the progress of the projects ensuring accountability and transparency. Capture will be able to start sharing this information with our users in the coming months and we are really excited to be able to keep you closely updated on the impact your offsets are having.
We know that carbon offsetting can be a sensitive topic in the environmental justice community, and we emphasise that it's vital for us to reduce emissions first, and keep offsetting as the final option. For those who do choose to offset with Capture, we hope to demonstrate here how important and beneficial these projects can be.