Updated April, 2022
File A1-77

How do Data and Payments Flow through Ag Carbon Programs?

For a visual guide on carbon programs, this file, How do Data and Payments Flow through Ag Carbon Programs?, illustrates, using flowcharts, traditional carbon offset generation as well as voluntary carbon programs currently operating in the United States. The various actors under each program are shown with arrows pointing in the direction that data, payments, methods, and carbon credits move within each carbon program. By illustrating whether verification and issuance are external or internal processes to the carbon program, the analysis provides some basis to anticipate differences in the perceived qualities and resulting prices for agriculture carbon credits issued by different programs. A companion file, AgDM File A1-76, How to Grow and Sell Carbon in US Agriculture, compares 11 voluntary carbon programs across two-dozen characteristics in a tabular form, providing valuable details to help farmers identify the programs from which they could benefit. Additional resources on Carbon Markets can be found on the Ag Decision Maker webpage, Carbon Market Information.

 

Alejandro Plastina, extension economist, 515-294-6160, plastina@iastate.edu

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Alejandro Plastina

extension economist
515-294-6160
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