Sydney, Australia - Corporate Carbon Group, in partnership with Forever Wild Group, today announced that its Narndee and Boodanoo project has been issued with 28,586 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by the Clean Energy Regulator.
This is the first round of ACCUs issued to the Narndee and Boodanoo project, a functioning cattle station and Human Induced Regeneration (HIR) project in the Southern Rangelands of Western Australia.
A new form of transparent, independently verified co-benefit unit will be stapled to these ACCUs. Developed by Australian company BeImpact in conjunction with Forever Wild Group, these co-benefit units relate to actions to protect the Mallee Fowl, a nationally vulnerable species, and to undertake comprehensive biodiversity management assessments across a vast area that remains largely undocumented.
The release of these stapled ACCUs marks a major milestone for the domestic carbon market, paving the way for more verifiable, high integrity co-benefits to be associated with ACCUs ahead of the incoming legislated biodiversity market.
Corporate Carbon Group Managing Director, Gary Wyatt said, “This first round of high integrity ACCUs unlocks a new opportunity to drive further impact at scale in the carbon industry beyond the primary goal of emissions reduction. The Narndee and Boodanoo project is a strong example of cattle and carbon working alongside each other to provide additional environmental outcomes that are now fully verifiable, working to support a profitable and viable agricultural economy.”
Fiachra Kearney, Forever Wild Group CEO and former CSIRO scientist, commented, “To date the market has been flooded with vague co-benefit claims that often only represent the intrinsic benefits of the carbon project. With this new framework we can not only bring high integrity credits to market but also give financiers and investors the confidence to invest in a sustainable future for the agricultural industry.”
The BeImpact framework provides a new form of co-benefit unit that represents verifiable environmental actions, fully traceable and transparent, ensuring that any premium paid is tied to demonstrable and additional on-ground impact. For the first time, these co-benefits are unitised on a blockchain registry, where buyers, project developers and beneficiaries all have visibility on the direct costs of the management interventions which achieve additional environmental outcomes, resulting in high-integrity co-benefit units.
By stapling these co-benefit units to the ACCUs developed by the project, Corporate Carbon is able to offer premium, high integrity ACCUs to market. This first round of premium ACCUs are available for purchase and more will be awarded in the coming years.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
In 2022 Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), in what was a landmark transaction for Australia’s agriculture sector and the domestic carbon market, prepaid for a portion of the carbon credits to be produced by the West Australian carbon project.
This $1.7 million transaction supported Forever Wild Ltd, a charity within Forever Wild Group, to acquire and manage pastoral leases for cattle stations at Narndee and Boodanoo Stations (covering a combined 560,000 acres) near Mount Magnet in Western Australia, along with an associated carbon credit project, to both run the project and to explore innovations in natural capital. Corporate Carbon provides technical support to Forever Wild in developing and implementing the carbon project.
At the time in 2022, the transaction was one of the first known private ACCU prepayment deals in Australia, and supported the development of carbon credit supply from the domestic agriculture sector. The model was later replicated by First Nations groups to buy back traditional lands.
ABOUT THE FRAMEWORK
Despite the proven intrinsic environmental benefits of regeneration projects over and above the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the co-benefits of carbon projects have been typically challenging to quantify and verify, and lack revenue-sharing transparency, undermining the value of the co-benefit claims.
BeImpact utilises blockchain technology and rigorous evaluation methodologies to apply an innovative co-benefit design, verification and traceability framework.
In this approach, the co-benefit units are based on the direct costs of the management interventions which achieve targeted environmental outcomes over and above carbon sequestration outcomes. These co-benefits are then unitised on a blockchain registry, providing transparency and traceability for all parties about how funds are being utilised on the ground.
Once the related ecological intervention/activity has been performed, those co-benefit units are then retired. Any future purchase of co-benefit units for the same property would be additional and fund new management activities not possible without this funding.
Critically, the co-benefits method can dovetail into a number of global standards and natural capital supply chain accounting, and can be independently audited. Ultimately allowing this unique approach to remove the often contentious valuation of non-market nature/ecological benefits.
About us:
ENDS
Interview opportunities:
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Corporate Carbon Managing Director, Gary Wyatt
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Forever Wild Group CEO, Fiachra Kearney
Media enquiries: for all media interviews and requests please contact:
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Megan Bentley, megan@thebraveryishere.com | 0452 214 611
Press Bank: HERE
About Corporate Carbon
Founded in 2010, Corporate Carbon is one of Australia’s leading carbon abatement project developers and owners. Delivering more than 13 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) to the CER and commercial clients, Corporate Carbon has deep expertise in identifying new emissions reduction opportunities, establishing projects, managing delivery risks, and navigating complex policy and legislation. Corporate Carbon is a Climate Active certified Carbon Neutral organisation, is a member of the Carbon Market Institute and an Australian Carbon Industry Code of Conduct Foundation signatory. corporatecarbon.com.au
About Forever Wild Group
Forever Wild Group represents a new generation of initiatives designing and implementing large-scale landscape management systems to sustainably integrate nature, society, and economics. foreverwild.com.au
BeImpact, a private company founded in 2023, offers the first known unitised blockchain co-benefit units to come to market providing transparency and traceability for all parties. beimpact.earth
Contact details:
Megan Bentley, megan@thebraveryishere.com | 0452 214 611
