Get involved Menu
Do you know the ACTUAL climate benefits of your current carbon offsets? find out more
Do you know the ACTUAL climate benefits of your current carbon offsets? find out more

What is a PACT?

The 'Cambridge PACT' is an entirely new approach to carbon credits

Our new PACTs 'Permanent, Additional, Certified Tonnes' uses remote sensing to create evidence-based carbon credits.

Introducing the Cambridge Natural PACT

We have developed a framework for enhancing the robustness of NBS project characterisation which combines cutting-edge methods for assessing additionality, a new approach to impermanence, and a transparent, self-correcting protocol for addressing uncertainty.

Together these innovations allow NBS, CCS and in principle any other offset projects to be compared on a like-for-like basis. We believe this has the potential to greatly increase buyer confidence, project comparability and hence NBS sales to existing and new buyers, and as a result encourage many more NBS projects to enter the market.

What is PACT?

Permanent

We provide a scientific formula that enables investors to buy an equivalent amount of natural carbon to a geologically stored [permanent] tonne.

Additional

We provide a scientific formula that enables investors to buy an equivalent amount of natural carbon to a geologically stored [permanent] tonne.

Carbon

We provide a scientific formula that enables investors to buy an equivalent amount of natural carbon to a geologically stored [permanent] tonne.

Tonnes

We provide a scientific formula that enables investors to buy an equivalent amount of natural carbon to a geologically stored [permanent] tonne.

find out more about PACT

new class of carbon credits a PACT

The climate benefit behind a single PACT is equivalent to a tonne of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, even if the underlying natural projects are more impermanent.

Using the latest Satellite remote sensing technology

Assessing our global progress towards a particular natural solution (e.g. halting tropical deforestation) is now possible. We leverage progress in earth observations to perform remote calculations across the globe; datasets we use include some for measuring carbon and land use change from space, modern land cover classifications at regional and global scales, and measurements of vegetation structure using space-borne LiDAR, without relying on data reported by the projects themselves.

PACTs are an important advance in transparency

They allow the possibility of greatly reducing the transaction cost of bringing carbon credits to market, particularly by transferring the burden of proof from credit generators to technology companies and international standards agencies.

Better spatial layers, particularly maps of habitat suitability for wildlife and indicators of human development, enable us to estimate consequences for people and nature. We aim to apply the same scrutiny and metrics to our evaluations of credits generated by some of the most advanced negative carbon technologies.

How PACTs are calculated

Every PACT is associated with an intervention project which aims to avoid or sequester emissions. In the case of avoided tropical deforestation.

(a) a project to replace clear-logged palm oil plantations with mixed-use cocoa plantations that preserve the forest land while remaining profitable.

(b) preventing otherwise profitable clear logging by paying for the opportunity cost via carbon credits

Additionality

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Permanence

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Leakage

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Biodiversity

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Livelihoods

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Justice

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

over-estimation of carbon benefits

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

The PACT is to measure additionality using two econometric techniques

Different type of pacts

Natural PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Marine PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Coastal Restoration PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Air quality PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Regenerative Farming PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

Life Stock Farming PACT

The current practice, widely employed by carbon accreditation bodies, is to measure the carbon additionality of a project against a scenario-based assessment of realistic and credible land-uses that would occur in the absence of the project.

our full selection of pacts

Get involved

Interested in the next generation of Carbon Credits?

get in touch

Pixel matching

A dense sample of observations (pixels) is taken from within the project boundary and the environmental conditions of each one then measured from map layers, including land cover class, biome, fractional cover of each land cover class within local region, the carbon density, historic land use change rates, accessibility (distance to health care in minutes, population density, soil type, elevation, slope, and topographic position index (hill or valley).

For each project pixel a matched counterfactual pixel is identified that is identical in all respects, except that it is outside the project area. This matching means that the project and counterfactual pixels are as similar as possible in terms of land use and habitat as well as exposure to the major drivers of land-use change.

Difference-in-difference analysis

By measuring carbon stock change rates before and after project implementation, both inside the project and in its counterfactual, we are able to measure additionality as the average treatment effect. Although DiD analysis does not require pre-project greenhouse gas fluxes to be identical in the project and the counterfactual, it does require that rates are changing in a parallel manner. For this reason, pixel matching is used to ensure that project and counterfactual samples are as close to identical as possible and on equivalent trajectories.

Any pre-existing differences from the counterfactual are excluded from credit generation but should still be reported because they may indicate premium value for two reasons: (1) prior to the project in question the site has improved carbon or co-benefit conservation / restoration relative to the counterfactual; and (2) there is a possibility of hidden additionality, not captured by the DiD formulation, (e.g. past performance was driven by historic support which is coming to an end).