This week University of Cumbria and Barker and Bland Ltd.’s innovative carbon calculator has been adopted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature UK Peatland Programme (IUCN UK PP) for use in the UK Peatland Code.

The calculator, produced by University of Cumbria PhD student Jack Brennand and Barker and Bland Ltd., will help peatland restoration projects calculate their direct greenhouse gas emissions associated with peat restoration activities.

The detailed carbon accounting tool estimates the carbon costs (the carbon footprint of the goods and services used to implement peatland restoration) associated with the raw materials, transport and installation of different peatland restoration interventions. Most interventions are either revegetating bare or degraded bogs or rewetting to ensure that carbon is stored long term rather than being lost to water bodies or the atmosphere.

The new tool also means that more exact climate benefits for a restoration project can be calculated. Currently, the Peatland Code estimates the long-term carbon savings arising from a restoration project but has little information on the impact different restoration approaches will have on those carbon savings. Therefore, a blanket 5% deduction, within the 10% precision buffer, of emissions reductions was applied to account for the direct emissions from restoration for all projects. This new work enables a robust estimate of the costs associated with implementing restoration. On a wider scale, the calculator enables project managers and contractors to consider the carbon budget in their planning of restoration projects.

The integration of this into the UK Peatland Code marks a significant milestone, requiring all new peatland restoration projects across the UK to incorporate these methods in their restoration design and project evaluation stages.

As the first initiative of its kind, embedding this approach into the IUCN UK PP Peatland Code sets a global precedent and boosts confidence in similar schemes worldwide. This breakthrough is particularly relevant for countries with extensive peatlands, such as Canada, Scandinavia, Chile, and Argentina, which are developing their own restoration and carbon credit frameworks to support environmental restoration.

The new Peatland Code emissions calculator is suitable for blanket and lowland raised bogs and incorporates a carbon costs calculator. Users input details of their restoration project and based on full life cycle assessment data, the tool calculates the total carbon cost of undertaking restoration activities within a project.

Dr Simon Carr, Associate Professor of Geography at University of Cumbria, said:

“This is an example of how innovative environmental research on the peatlands of Cumbria and partnership with a local business, Barker & Bland Ltd, can yield immense benefits and impact.  

“The research findings from Jack Brennand’s PhD project, expanded through an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership have enabled us to provide a key tool to one of the UK’s most important carbon credit schemes, making it more robust and offering greater confidence to future investors in nature-based approaches to tackling climate change.”

Simon and Jack are now working to expand the functionality of the tool to include calculating carbon costs for fens and will continue to work with the UK Peatland Code to ensure that evolving restoration practices and novel methods can be accommodated within the tool.

Renée Kerkvliet-Hermans, Peatland Code Manager for the IUCN UK PP, said:

“This calculation allows us, for the first time, to formally quantify the impact that a restoration activity has and allows a project to correct its (expected) emission reductions resulting from the restoration. This is an important step forward to allow the Peatland Code to issue units which are even more reflective of the climate benefits of a project.”

For more information, read Barker and Bland Ltd's briefing on restoration carbon. View the updated Peatland Code calculator tool on the Peatland Code project page.