Woodland Carbon Guarantee
Guaranteed income for delivery of verified Woodland Carbon Units in England over the next 30 years.
The Government in England launched the Woodland Carbon Guarantee in November 2019. It supports woodland creation in England by spending £50m over 30 years to purchase Woodland Carbon Units.
This is a great opportunity for landowners considering creating woodland in England over the next few years. Successful applicants will benefit from a guaranteed income upon delivery of verified Woodland Carbon Units every 5 or 10 years up to 2055/56. The price will be agreed through an auction. Accessing the guarantee will require the woodland to be validated and verified to the Woodland Carbon Code.
Applicants offered a contract to sell to government are still free to sell their credits on the open market if the timing or price is more advantageous.
The next auction: Deadline tbc
In order to participate in the next auction, you need to:
You can't enter the auction if any work has started onsite. If you were unsuccessful in a previous auction and would like to enter again, just email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to confirm. You don't need to complete the guarantee application form again.
- If you don't have an account on the UK Land Carbon Registry, it could take up to 2 weeks to open an account, and register your project with the WCC and the Guarantee. Please allow sufficient time ahead of any auction deadline.
- Existing project developers can add your project to their account and this will be much quicker.
- Read the 'Guide to the seventh auction'.
Note that you can apply for the option to sell Woodland Carbon Units to government alongside applying for grant (for example the England Woodland Creation Offer, Woodland Carbon Fund or HS2 Woodland Fund) provided you haven't yet started to plant your woodland. You also need to meet all the eligiblity criteria of the Woodland Carbon Code, including additionality
Results of previous auctions
Here's the auction results to date.
| Total bids |
Successful bids/ contracts offered | Area successful bids (ha) | Ave price successful bids (weighted by no of WCU) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Auction 1: 2020 |
31 | 18 | 182 | £24.11 |
| Auction 2: 2020 | 77 | 27 | 1,517 | £19.71 |
| Auction 3: 2020 | 46 | 31 | 620 | £17.31 |
| Auction 4: 2021 | 23 | 19 | 331 | £18.62 |
| Auction 5: 2022 | 16 | 15 | 99 | £23.70 |
| Auction 6: 2022 | 9 | 9 | 59 | £22.61 |
| Auctino 7: 2023 | 2 | 2 | £19.76 |
Find out More
Webinars:
- Guarantee Webinar March 2023 - The Woodland Carbon Guarantee Team and the Woodland Carbon Code Team presented a webinar late March: Watch the Webinar!
- Guarantee Webinar October 2022 - The Woodland Carbon Guarantee Team and the Woodland Carbon Code Team presented a webinar early October: Watch the Webinar!
Case Studies:
- Find out about Webbs Farm (Essex) and Lackford Estate (Suffolk) who were successful in the February 2020 WCaG auction.
- Read about the Mair family, who through Brown and Co as project developer, were successful in the first auction.
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any queries.
