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December 2022

The MRV Collective is an expanding coalition of Measurement, Reporting & Verification companies building an open MRV protocol to accelerate investment in nature-based solutions for climate and biodiversity protection.

TLDR Highlights

Summary and Key Learnings

Update: Github for Nature, Data Lab with TNFD @ COP15

With the TNFD release just around the corner — September 2023 — we have a shorter timeframe to get adoption of the framework than with climate. Nature and biodiversity risk is urgent, and the sooner we can help companies understand the challenge and how to better address gaps in nature data.

On December 13th we are hosting a data lab at the TNFD Tech and Innovation workshop in Montreal. The goal of the lab is to present the “GitHub for Nature” project led by the MRV Collective with participation from some of the brightest nature data minds in private, public, and NGO sectors and discuss ways to design a modern, dynamic and easy to use data catalog for nature data.

Register to attend virtually below as in person attendance is now closed.

White House OSTP Briefing

The MRVC briefed the Whitehouse Office of Science and Technology Policy including the Deputy Director. We were very happy to meet a committed team addressing biodiversity and climate challenges and this level. The meeting led us to some important pointers and renewed connections with GeoBon and the Natural Capital Project. Our team is following up to discuss how we can align and support an interagency GHG reporting effort. Nature Data is siloed across US government agencies e.g. NRCS, NOAA, DoE, BLM and the OSTP are leading exciting interagency efforts such as the development of natural capital accounting to enable environmental-economic decision making which was announced this past Earth Day.

Good 🤍 News

MRVC participated in a dMRV showcase for Flori Ventures

Watch our own Raviv Turner talking to Hara Wang from Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) — who describes MRV as the “proof of work” for carbon credit suppliers — along with Luis Felipe Adaime, CEO of MOSS Earth; and Stephen Klein, CEO of Hyphen; on the state of dMRV, the role of blockchain for MRV and some latest development and MRV tech that solves the carbon marketplace (and soon biodiversity) crunch.

“Ridge to Reef” Teaser of Costa Rica MRV Lab

Following MRV Collective facilitations, interviews, and field trip to the Rancho Margot MRV Lab in Costa Rica earlier in the year, we produced the following video which tells the story and challenges of developing a ridge to reef approach together with Costa Rica Regenerativa, University of International Cooperation, Connect Ocean, Rancho Margot, and more.

Challenges

Race to the Bottom for Commodities?

Commodities are notoriously complex and are especially susceptible to race to the bottom scenarios whereby suppliers are chosen based upon cost alone — nature data can help make true costs visible — we cannot afford regarding the regeneration and conservation of nature. MRVC is now in conversation with a commodity trader to help with regenerative ag and supply chain data.

Paris Moment @ COP15?

COP15 in Montreal begins on 7 December and ends on 19 December. Paris agreement architects have urged leaders to reach an agreement at COP15, encouraging participation, and ambitious commitments —there is no shortage of groups projecting their hopes on this event. Read more here.

Nature Protects us if we Protect Nature, Indigenous Science and Bridging Perspectives

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science is a book published earlier this year which reveals how Indigenous Latin American environmental knowledge can help foster more sustainable agricultural systems — perhaps the anti-disciplinary approach (Oxman 2018) points to similar conceptions as the Indigenous Holistic Framework (Pidgeon, 2014) — at COP15 we’ll be visiting Our Village where indigenous voices will be amplified.

Data, Research & What We’re Reading

News, nature data, research, MRV applications
December Thematic Focus — Supply Chains

Nature impacts remain 'blind spot' for major corporates
December 2022 via Business Green

Why do we need agricultural traceability and what are the benefits?
November 2022 via Fall Line Capital

The world’s largest food companies have gone backwards on net zero
December 2022 via Just Food

Report calls on palm oil firms to make up for nearly 1m hectares of forest loss
November 2022 via Monga Bay

Bridging the Ambition Gap: A framework for scaling corporate funds for carbon removal and wider climate action
November 2022 via Carbon Gap

Fresh Banana Leaves: Healing Indigenous Landscapes Through Indigenous Science
January 2022 via Jessica Hernandez, PhD

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