There are two aspects to this problem
Firstly, society as a whole needs to develop new land use practices, economic activities, infrastructure and ecosystems to adapt to altered climates, and secondly, atmospheric carbon dioxide needs to be managed.
C4 provides technical expertise in both of these arenas.
Adaption
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Adapting to climate change requires a multi-disciplinary approach.
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Active participation of governments, private businesses, NGOs, academia, civil society and individuals is required to increase the resilience of local communities to climate change risks such as rising temperatures, floods, droughts and sea level rise.
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C4 specialises in working in this multi-disciplinary arena. Our projects and investments are developed for clients by assessing the climate change risks in a particular region and then developing interventions for adapting to those risks.
Mitigation
- Managing carbon dioxide can be part of an adaptation strategy.
- This is because it can be captured from the atmosphere when restoring degraded ecosystems and improving agricultural practices. The benefits of the carbon capture usually include enhanced soil quality improved functioning of water catchments and increased productivity of natural and agricultural systems. Carbon credits – which can be sold on the voluntary carbon market – can potentially be generated from such a change in land use.
- C4 has developed and validated five Project Description Documents (PDDs) for carbon credit projects registered with Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard – the premier certification standard in the voluntary carbon market. Three of these projects also received the acclaimed certification from the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard.
- The recent growth of the voluntary carbon market has increased the demand for scoping and feasibility studies to assist in taking investment decisions on carbon sequestration projects. The C4 carbon team of more than 20 technical experts has conducted more than 40 such studies for investors.
- In addition to the above work, our sister company, AfriCarbon (Pty) Ltd. is currently implementing an ecosystem restoration project in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. During the course of 2023, the ~350 workers employed by this project have planted out more than 30 million trees into 5,200 hectares of degraded thicket landscapes. This restoration will result in more than 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being sequestered from the atmosphere over a 50 year period.