Rescan has assembled a team of innovative specialists to offer our clients a complete range of carbon inventory reporting solutions, as well as verifcation and validation services. Our team provides greenhouse gas inventory reporting for existing and proposed developments, including evaluation of emissions, potential emission reductions, carbon measurements in soils and vegetation, and predicted carbon sequestration. In addition, we can provide guidance for monitoring and reclamation program designs, or assess existing inventories as an independent third party. Rescan’s assessments include validation (confirmation of the methodology used for the inventory) as well as verification (confirmation of the amount of carbon that has been emitted or sequestered).
Carbon Inventory/Auditing Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is climate change?
Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation from the earth that would otherwise escape from the atmosphere into space. Carbon dioxide is considered the most significant greenhouse gas. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have increased from about 280 parts per million (ppm) to about 379 ppm in 2005. About 60% of this carbon dioxide can be attributed the burning of fossil fuel, while 40% comes from the conversion of forests to agricultural land. Scientists have reached a consensus that an increase in global temperature, melting of snow and ice in the polar regions, and a rise in mean sea level are among the likely consequences of this increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Q: What are carbon credits?
Carbon credits are tradable permits exchanged between companies and nations as part of a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On markets like the European Climate Exchange, groups that have emitted greenhouse gases in excess of guidelines set by international treaties (such as the Kyoto Protocol) can purchase carbon credits from groups whose emissions are below the guidelines. Each credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide emissions.
Q: What is carbon sequestration?
Growing plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. Part of the carbon sequestered by plants (and by microorganisms) is transferred to the soil, and thus carbon sequestration occurs both above and below ground. Increasing the amount of carbon sequestered and stored in the soils and vegetation is one means of countering climate change.
When biomass is burned in forest fires or as biofuel, the carbon dioxide that is sequestered in the plants is emitted into the atmosphere is essentially the same the amount plants have sequestered. Therefore, only the revegetation of land previously denuded of vegetation land will remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The extraction and burning of fossil fuel, on the other hand, adds additional carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, because fossil fuels are not part of the carbon cycle. The best strategy is to avoid the emission of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels as much as possible.
Carbon Inventory / Auditing
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