Additional carbon removals

Additionality refers to carbon removal that happens because of a project - over and above what would have happened anyway without it.

Carbon buyers want to know that their investment has enabled more carbon sequestration than would otherwise have happened under normal ‘business as usual’ circumstances. 

Carbon income can help to incentivise landowners to plant new woodland. 

The Woodland Carbon Code tests additionality at the project level in two ways - legal and financial. 

Under the financial test, a project is only additional if woodland creation is not the most economically or financially attractive land use. 

Our robust additionality tests are aligned to international best practice. They are also transparent as assessments are publicly available on the UK Land Carbon Registry. 

For more information, see our additionality requirements and Forest Research’s review of approaches to carbon additionality.