Japan’s Green Carbon tapping rubber trees for carbon credit

Tokyo – Japan-based decarbonisation company Green Carbon Co. is eyeing “resource-recycling-oriented” carbon credits from rubber-tree based biochar.

The company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Thailand Natural Rubber Corp., a government agency that oversees the Thai NR industry to advance the project.

The initiative will involve 4 million hectares of rubber plantations across Thailand and will see the partners jointly developing a ‘biochar project’ using tapped-out rubber trees, said Green Carbon 13 Dec.

The project will collect rubber wood scraps that were previously discarded and process them into biochar.

It will then “quantify the soil carbon fixation effect” of the biochar and create and sell it as carbon credits.

Green Carbon said it will “apply the biochar produced to rubber plantations and scientifically verify the substitution of chemical fertilisers, the effect of soil improvement, and the impact of rubber on the growth of trees.”

Green Carbon will also collaborate with the Thai NR authority to establish sustainable cultivation methods in rubber farming.

“We will support the... sustainability of the entire industry, through obtaining forest certification and complying with EU regulations (EUDR, CBAM),” said Green Carbon.

Green Carbon expects the project to serve as a model case for the decarbonisation of the NR industry globally.

The Tokyo-based company is currently developing carbon credit projects in the fields of forest conservation and agriculture in Southeast Asia.

It expects to use the insights from Thailand in other NR producing countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.