Avoided Land Degradation and Enhanced Soil Carbon Storage: Is There a Role for Carbon Markets? - Soil Carbon: Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits - page 371

Table 31.1. Accounting rules and accountability for soil carbon to be included in market-based mechanisms in different countries.

Soil C fungibility with other
emission types Entity Accounting Accountability Voluntary investment

Early-industrialized countries
(Annex-I), following Kyoto protocol

National reporting using
IPCC standards

Legal + moral Not within their national

boundaries; some in
A/R-CDM context

Consumer pressure shifts
private sector

Early-industrialized countries
(Annex-I), not following Kyoto
protocol

National reporting using
IPCC standards

Moral Idem Higher voluntary commitment?

Latecomers in economic
development (non-Annex-I),
with articulated NAMA

National reporting using
IPCC standards

Moral Land-based emissions tend to

be a large share of total

Taxing investment not aligned
with national priorities

Idem , without NAMA National reporting using

IPCC standards

Ignored Idem Various attempts to tax, control

and influence

International trade in bioenergy Ignored beyond Annex-I

involvement

Moral, if national goals are
achieved on back of global
emission increase

Peatland recognized as
emission hotspots

Trade self-regulation,
e.g. RSPO

International trade in other
products

Idem None Idem Idem

Voluntary carbon transactions No specific relation None Flexible Multiple motivations

A/R-CDM, afforestation/reforestation clean development mechanisms; IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; NAMA, nationally appropriate mitigation actions; RSPO,
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.