On Tuesday 4th June, BeZero Carbon hosted a webinar with its partner Planet, a leading provider of Earth observation data. The discussion centred on the rapid evolution of geospatial technology, its role in carbon project monitoring, and how this data informs BeZero’s carbon ratings.
These innovations are helping sustainability leaders identify high-quality projects, and make more confident decisions around their carbon credit purchases than ever before.
Moderated by Melanie Eddis, Partner at ERM, BeZero’s Chief Ratings Officer Teresa Hartmann was joined by Tara O'Shea, Senior Director of Strategy, Forests and Land Use at Planet and Dr Don Danmeier, Technical Manager of Offsets at Chevron.
Here are some key takeaways:
The panel stressed the acceleration of technological progress in geospatial and Earth observation techniques in recent years
While satellite monitoring is most commonly used in assessing the effectiveness of nature-based solutions, applications are expanding to other carbon market sectors, as well as biodiversity and socio-economic indicators
In conjunction with on-the-ground measurements and a wider view of the financial, political, and technological context in which carbon projects operate, satellite monitoring is a powerful tool to boost trust and drive better decision-making in the market
Geospatial technology today: “much better, much faster”
The discussion kicked off with a dive into Planet’s satellite monitoring and forest datasets, led by Tara O’Shea, who explored the progress that Earth observation technology has made in producing imagery with higher spatial and temporal resolutions.
In forest and land use monitoring in particular, sharper and more frequent satellite images have made monitoring habitat conditions and deforestation much more accurate.
The latest developments—using deep learning models to combine high-resolution satellite images with airborne and spaceborne LiDAR—are set to provide near real-time analysis of forest structure and carbon stocks, down to the scale of individual tree crowns. BeZero is using these data, in partnership with Planet, to refine its models of forest change and baseline assessment.
BeZero’s own Teresa Hartmann underscored how technological progress in recent years is bolstering innovation and trust in the market. With the rate of development increasing over time, monitoring of climate projects is only expected to be more robust in years to come.
Unearthing what’s happening on the ground
BeZero’s ratings are informed by Planet’s imagery and forest datasets, contributing to its analysis of three overarching risk factors of a given carbon project: additionality, carbon accounting, and permanence. Geospatial data of various kinds inform all three, from mapping the project boundaries and identifying land management practices, to building independent dynamic baselines and assessing risk from natural hazards such as fire, extreme weather, and sea level rise.
Teresa noted that clients have been particularly interested in the power of geospatial insights for nature-based projects, though the technology has applications that extend beyond the nature sector.
Through marrying Planet’s satellite monitoring with data streams from space agencies and a wide range of environmental and socioeconomic layers, BeZero’s geospatial models help clients better understand a project’s effectiveness.
Better decision-making and accelerated due diligence
Don Danmeier from Chevron offered a buyer’s perspective on the utility of forest monitoring products, identifying the two main applications in his role: improving the quality of decision-making through identifying risks, and accelerating due diligence processes. From the early-stage investor’s perspective, challenges can still remain: he noted that differences in gathering and interpreting geospatial data can emerge across datasets, and that site visits remain a necessary part of the process.
On the question of the cost of using Planet’s forest monitoring products, Don stressed that costs have so far not been a blocker to pursuing more accurate models, owing to the clear and justifiable use-cases and benefits of investing in better data. Low cost climate monitoring solutions do not have value in and of themselves, he argued. Unless they can improve decision making or speed the decision process, low cost solutions do not provide inherent benefits.
What’s next for geospatial technologies and applications?
Looking forward, Tara remarked on the range of exciting new developments in the geospatial arena, and especially the power of increased accessibility of these technologies to unlock ever more practical applications. This accessibility spurs further innovation, through the feedback of local knowledge and novel use cases.
Teresa added that applications for geospatial techniques are extending far beyond forest carbon: BeZero is exploring the use of satellite imagery and other geospatial data to monitor infrastructure development in non nature-based projects, emissions from landfill sites and oil wells, as well as biodiversity indicators. The market is steering towards applications outside nature and beyond carbon, and indeed better applications within the nature-based sector.
Through training machine learning models in analysing geospatial data, Tara added, the market is innovating not just to bolster tech, but also to build trust through more reliable and accessible data. Don concurred on the value of machine learning, and identified an opportunity for greater transparency around how the algorithms work.
The future of climate action looks bright
The overarching sentiment on the panel was one of optimism, owing to the rapidly increasing rate of improvement of geospatial technology and its potential to help scale carbon markets for meaningful climate action.
While risk is part and parcel of any climate project, sharp technology and independent ratings are helping to make those risks clearer for market participants, in projects across all sectors.