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April 2023 |
The MRV Collective is a coalition of Measurement, Reporting & Verification (MRV) companies and organizations working to make MRV more affordable, reliable and scalable to accelerate investment in data-driven nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change, ecosystem collapse, and biodiversity loss. |
Highlights |
MRVC joins TNFD Global Nature Data Utility GNDU Steering Committee and rolls up TNFD Nature Data Catalog work
What Nature Data platforms can Learn from Genomics & Healthcare sectors?
Planet Explore and SF Climate Week Updates
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Happy Earth Day! |
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Wherever you are on this planet — prioritize time to find and make beauty — essential acts of survival to practice Radical Joy in troubled times.
Earth Day is a reminder that we all belong to the same home, know that all are connected by the common ground beneath our hearts!
This Earth Day, begin to pay attention to wild animals and their homes — indicators of what is happening to our Earth and join us in helping to make nature protection more rewarding. |
Biodiversity MRV Providers — You’re Invited!
Want to test, educate, and scale your in-situ biodiversity MRV solutions in the Global South? Reach out to learn more about Biodiversity MRV Week — happy to host qualified providers who, measure report or verify on biodiversity developing science with access/experience with in-situ datasets have customers and product
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Summary and Key Learnings |
Global Nature Data Utility & Nature Data Catalog
The MRV Collective was invited to join a newly formed steering committee for the TNFD Global Nature Data Utility to identify key challenges with respect to nature data including architecture, security, incentives, and amplification. The outputs of this group will be shared with the G20 in June. This is amazing news and we’re grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this TNFD led initiative chaired by David Craig and in the company of NatureFinance, SBTN, GRI, CDfP, Capitals Coalition / XBRL, Global Commons Alliance, UNEP-WCMC, GBIF, and Systemiq.
The GNDU effort has significant overlap in purpose and organization participation with the Nature Data Catalog and we have thus decided to pause our steering committee for the time being. The Nature Data Catalog work is expected shift in some capacity as we to align to address key challenges and leverage points that the MRV Collective is strategically positioned to help address. |
Biodiversity Week in Costa RicaWe are excited to announce the upcoming "Biodiversity MRV Week in Costa Rica," a gathering of professionals, experts, and technology providers from around the world who are dedicated to preserving our planet's ecosystems.
The event will bring together innovative technologies for measuring ecosystems. These technology partners will showcase their latest tools and techniques for monitoring and reporting on the health and diversity of our planet's ecosystems.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn about the latest advancements in the field of biodiversity monitoring, including remote sensing, citizen science, and DNA-based techniques. There will also be panel discussions and workshops focused on topics such as data sharing, best practices for monitoring biodiversity, and strategies for integrating technology into conservation efforts. |
Collaboration & InnovationParticipants will have the opportunity to learn about the latest advancements in the field of biodiversity monitoring, including remote sensing, citizen science, and DNA-based techniques. There will also be panel discussions and workshops focused on topics such as data sharing, best practices for monitoring biodiversity, and strategies for integrating technology into conservation efforts.
Join us to catalyze collaboration and innovation in the field of biodiversity monitoring and reporting — happy to host providers with customer and product. | |
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Planet Explore 23 & SF Climate WeekMRVC dropped in to events from coast to coast this month at both Planet Explore 23 and SF Climate Week.
AI for Analyzing Geospatial Data
GeoGPT is coming and would be able to answer all sorts of planetary questions towards analyzing geospatial data — “What’s the #carbon and #biodiversity value of that land location?” Now automate payments for ecosystem services (PES) using a plugins to decentralized micropayment vendors. View more.
Multi-layer MRV Fascinating case study by Francesco Tonini, PhD, GISP and Denise Perez of The Nature Conservancy on using multi-layer MRV data to preserve blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves and sea grasses along the Caribbean coast. Great example of layering with 100% science and data, 0% greenwashing. High res satellite images by Planet Drone images by Florida International University Species level and sediment data for field validation by Florida International University
Nexus of MRV Providers Great concentration of MRV providers including Earth Shot, Pachama, Perrennial, along with consultancy One Point Five. |
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Another great case study at from Planet Explore 23 on how to use MRV data for environmental justice and to drive conservation policy within Tanzania and Kenya.
Lyndon Estes showed how they developed two methods that use Planet imagery to map agriculture at country-scales. In the first, they used a convolutional neural network (CNN) to develop annual cropland maps of Ghana, applying regularization techniques that enable a model trained on 2018 PlanetScope imagery to generalize to NICFI basemaps collected in 2019-2021.
The resulting maps provide insights into how field size and area are changing and highlight the substantial between-year shifts within these croplands.
In the second approach, they trained another CNN using NICFI basemaps and Sentinel-1 imagery to map Tanzania’s land cover for 2018, with substantial accuracy gains compared to existing land cover maps, particularly for croplands.
They used the map to develop a habitat suitability model for elephant, which they use to identify key migration corridors that are threatened by agricultural growth, in order to inform land use and conservation planning. |
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Data Learnings from Genomics & Health Care
Important lessons about Nature data platforms can be learned from genomics and health care data challenges. For example both have challenges regarding numerous decentralized data providers, computation requirements, taxonomies, harmonization, diverse applications and data consumers. This past month we assessed a number of recent studies including data federation for democratized access and benefits, data sharing across national borders, and applications for DLT for privacy and markets. |
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Good News |
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Welcome to the Collective! |
This month we’ve seen an uptick in interest and welcome a number of new members. We also put in place our Nature Positive Membership Pledge Agreement and a focus upon MRV Providers with customers and revenue. |
| PivotalPivotal's mission is to deliver the data and evidence people and companies need to invest in positive outcomes for nature - enabling new nature financing mechanisms to emerge at scale, while assuring they drive positive change. | |
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| Rebalance EarthRebalance Earth sits at the intersection of cutting-edge science, economic modelling and innovative technologie. Our mission is to is to create high-integrity nature credits that protect and grow biodiversity, capture carbon and generate prosperity for the communities that preserve nature. | |
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| ANCAThe African Natural Capital Alliance (ANCA) is a collaborative forum for mobilising the financial community’s response to the risk of nature loss in Africa. | |
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| ERSThe Ecosystem Restoration Standard is a new certification that harnesses the full potential of restoration projects. By integrating dMRV (Digital Monitoring, Reporting & Verification) into the Standard, we are able to track progress continuously across multiple baselines. | |
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| Protocols.ioProtocols.io provides a central location for research methods. It is a service created by scientists for scientists to record and share detailed up-to-date protocols for research, to facilitate science communication and the rapid sharing of knowledge. | |
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Stay tuned for our new website where we’ll begin to spotlight members of the collective. |
Challenges |
Metrics Not Fit for Purpose in Making Comparative Assertions between Entities |
The Oxford Smith School released an important study a few months back. The summary is that “market participants require comparability to make decisions, and policies aimed at using market mechanisms to address climate change relies on this ability. GHG emission metrics are suitable for trend analysis, continuous improvement, and target setting, but not fit-for-purpose in making comparative assertions between multiple entities.”
The same is true of nature data metrics and private sector MRV data providers — comparability is one of the top challenges we have identified across numerous MRV data providers. Our mission at the MRV Collective is to help with such cross sector challenges by helping to design for comparability across nature data products and avert an ESG style failure leading to life threatening delays.
Read more from the Oxford Smith School here. |
Natural Capital & Nature Risk Signals |
Understanding and assessing risk signals is crucial to manage investment portfolios, yet managers and analysts lack the capacity to understand and assess nature risk signals. These are some of the conclusions from Lucy Thomas, Head of Investing at UBS in a recent article that “delivering returns over the long term relies on everything functioning as it should: economic markets, society and nature”.
Clearly the location-specific nature of natural capital, including water, fisheries, wildlife, and woodlands, must be considered, as they vary greatly by region. Although data on natural capital can be difficult to access and organize, there is plenty of it available, such as data on land use, deforestation, and water consumption. Utilizing this data and building the capacity of portfolio managers and analysts to understand and assess the risk signals will be crucial for investment portfolios. A significant challenge is to build capacity to understand such risk signals.
Read more from Lucy Thomas, Head of Investing at UBS |
Market Economy Challenges |
Those interested in exploring market economy alternatives may learn much from the works of economist David Fleming (1940 – 2010), a visionary thinker and writer who played significant roles in the genesis of the UK Green Party, the Transition Towns movement, and the New Economics Foundation, as well as chairing the Soil Association. A great introduction — both hopeful and funny — is the following book published posthumously in 2016.
Review here |
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Biodiversity MRV Providers — You’re Invited!
Want to test, educate, and scale your in-situ biodiversity MRV solutions in the Global South? Reach out to learn more about Biodiversity MRV Week — happy to host qualified providers who, measure report or verify on biodiversity developing science with access/experience with in-situ datasets have customers and product
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Regulatory Radar |
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Ater two years of negotiation, EU lawmakers approve the world's first carbon import tax for carbon-intensive industries such as steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers and electricity that must comply with strict emissions standards. Under the new measure, the price per ton of carbon dioxide emissions for imports will be the same as the price for the EU’s emissions trading system: around 90 euros a metric ton, equivalent to $98.37.
The UK is following the EU's direction and cracking down on anti-greenwashing law enforcement, stating that it will take further action on sustainable finance funds, ratings and ranking agencies. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has warned index providers that they are fueling greenwashing after identifying “widespread failings” with ESG benchmarks that guide billions in investment.
Last month, the Sustainable Finance Action Council (SFAC) released its Taxonomy Roadmap Report featuring a made-in-Canada framework to establish standardized and science-based definitions of climate-compatible investments. |
| The EU released several documents related to climate goals and regulatory actions, including monitoring the False Green Claims, urging global elimination of fossil fuels, and requiring member states to achieve related targets.
The EU and Germany finally reached a consensus on phasing out fossil fuel vehicles, allowing the use of synthetic fuels. The new agreement will allow the sale of vehicles that burn carbon-neutral synthetic fuels, known as e-fuels, made from renewable energy past 2035.
Many Asian countries are taking action on emission reduction goals and sustainable disclosure requirements. Japan and Malaysia have issued sustainability reporting requirements, while Korea and Singapore have established industry emission reduction requirements. The Singaporean Ministries and Statutory Boards must report on sustainability efforts, and India has agreed on an ESG regulatory framework, setting consistent standards for the current market. |
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| Taskforce on Nature MarketsCheck out the latest report about the role of law, regulation, and policy for biodiversity credit markets. Click the link to browse the entire PDF and share your comments and synthesis on the board. | |
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Data, Research, and Media |
News, nature data, research, MRV applications |
Turning the Tide: UN Water Week Global Commission on the Economics of Water, March 2023
Reviving Rivers with Dr Rajendra Singh, Waterman of India Water Stories, March 2023
Data Progress Needed Stanford, April 2023
Soaring Interest Rates Contributed to Bank Failures WEF, March 2023
BloombergGPT
Cornell, March 2023
Can Gaming Solve Puzzle for Camera Trap Conservationists
MongaBay, March 2023
AI Agreement between US & EU Reuters, January 2023
What Plants are Saying About Us
Nautilus, March 2023
Local Scale: Why the developed world cannot save the developing world
Better Worlds, December 2022 |
| Something to share?Submit recommended nature data sources, MRV news, and research. | |
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Biodiversity MRV Providers — You’re Invited!
Want to test, educate, and scale your in-situ biodiversity MRV solutions in the Global South? Reach out to learn more about Biodiversity MRV Week — happy to host qualified providers who, measure report or verify on biodiversity developing science with access/experience with in-situ datasets have customers and product
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