Forests absorb carbon, provide habitat and restore bio-diversity.
An offset is greenhouse gas emission reduction or capture that is traded in order to compensate for emissions that cannot be eliminated due to inability, lack of technology or economic constraints. Offsetting is typically seen as a third step in reducing greenhouse gas emissions after reducing energy consumption and substituting renewable energy.
More than anything else, offsets should be additional. That is, they should be reductions in emissions or capture of carbon from the atmosphere that is additional to a business as usual case.
Borealis is in the offsetting business for two reasons. First, because forestry carbon offsets created on marginal agricultural land are clearly additional in ways that many other offsets sometimes are not.
Second, we believe that everyone has an obligation to do what they can in addressing climate change. Borealis has extraordinary skills and resources that we can use to create new, healthy and bio-diverse forest ecosystems. Creating new forests is what we can do to help.
Absolutely. Deforestation has contributed to 30% of global CO2 emissions in the last 150 years. Further, 20% of global GHG emissions annually are due to deforestation. In British Columbia, the mountain pine beetle has turned over 130,000 square kilometers of pine forest into a carbon source. The aggressive creation of new forests on private land can help to reverse the effects of the damage that has taken place.
The creation of new forest ecosystems provides reliable carbon absorption and lasting benefits through the protection of water resources, native species, bio-diversity and habitat.