Conserving threatened forests and mitigating climate change

Pledge by

Eni S.p.A.

Conserving forests subject to high deforestation and degradation rate, ensuring socio-economic development of local populations and biodiversity protection, avoiding 15 Million tonnes CO2 per year by 2030

Type
Conserving, Enabling
This pledge will take place from
2020 to beyond 2030
Location
Angola, Cote d`Ivoire, Ghana and more

Company website

Pledge overview

Eni recognizes the important role of Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) in limiting global warming to 1.5°C, in line with the Paris Agreement. Indeed, NCS have a very high abatement potential; provide multiple benefits in terms of biodiversity protection and local community social and economic development; are cost efficient compared to other GHG abatement options.

Therefore, Eni included NCS in its strategy within a mitigation hierarchy, where the priority is given to the reduction of its own direct GHG emissions, while the carbon offset will be used as the very last action to compensate the residual emissions.

Within NCS, considering the urgent need to reduce the global deforestation rate, Eni started by first focusing on REDD+ projects which ensure climate and environmental benefits, but also the creation of new jobs and economic diversification, as part of partner countries’ growth path. In Eni strategy, in order to maximise the climate and environmental protection, the share of carbon removal projects such as ecosystem restoration will progressively increase along the reduction of global deforestation rate. Within the REDD+ scheme, the main forest protection activities are coupled with actions aimed at the economic diversification, such as sustainable agricultural projects, initiatives intended to increase access to energy and to clean cooking, as well as education and professional training programmes.

Regarding project governance, Eni participates in NCS projects to monitor project implementation with the view to ensure adherence to the REDD+ scheme and, in general, the alignment with the highest international standards for certification of carbon reduction. The direct participation allows to oversee every phase of project design and development, from planning to implementation up to verification of emission reductions, with an active role in project governance.

In terms of targets, Eni is committed to offset residual GHG emission by a minimum of 15 million tonnes CO2eq per year by 2030.

Actions in this pledge

  • Conserving trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Conservation support activities
    Support the operating costs and activities of existing conservation areas, including advocacy for conservation policy
    Additional details

    Eni supports the conservation of forests ecosystems and landscapes through both REDD+ projects implementation and carbon credits acquisition. In terms of tracking, Eni periodically monitors the progress of each project considering the impacts of projects activities, in terms of reduction of forest loss and degradation, the costs, the timing of execution of the activities and any changes in the planned amount of credits issued. In case of deviations, Eni analyses the causes and support the identification of the necessary corrections. At the generation of carbon credits, Eni runs a review process in which the performance indicators (KPI) are analysed, aiming at identifying the lessons learned, adapting the development of the subsequent phases and possibly revising the REDD+ project portfolio in relation to the emission reduction objectives and financial constraints.

    Conserving

  • Enabling activities for trees and forest landscapes

    Supporting actions
    Sustainable forest management
    Activities that support the stewardship and use of forests (including by local communities and indigenous peoples), to maintain their biological diversity, productivity, and regeneration capacity, as well as their potential to fulfil relevant ecological economic and social functions
    Education and capacity building
    Forest / tree species conservation and restoration education programmes, targeted educational and behaviour change campaigns, training and capacity building, including promotion of local and traditional knowledge and practices
    Community mobilisation
    Community mobilisation and engagement activities for conservation, restoration and reforestation, including enabling systems of community governance, etc.
    Additional details

    According to our business model, NCS projects are developed on the base of the results-based payments principle and provide ecosystem services that support the sustainable development of local communities. All the project activities are developed in common agreement with the local communities and in compliance with all the elements envisaged by the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCB).

    Our approach, which is based in re-investing in the project large part of the revenues from carbon credits acquisition, guarantees the economic sustainability of the projects in the long term.

    Lastly, each project and each community have specific needs, therefore also the monitoring of positive impacts is project specific but is guaranteed by the verification procedures developed by Verra.

    Enabling

Carbon benefits

15 Million tonnes CO2e per year by 2030

Our ecologically and socially responsible approach

The certification standard used by Eni for REDD+ projects (i.e. Verified Carbon Standard by Verra) prescribes the execution of local community engagement through extensive consultations before the project implementation. In this context, any comment or recommendation coming from local communities is carefully considered by Eni. Moreover, each Eni project receives the free and prior informed consent (FPIC), which is recognised in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, from local communities. In addition, Eni aims at also achieving the Climate Community and Biodiversity certification at triple gold level, which is a guarantee of exceptional results for the projects in terms of climate (adaptation), biodiversity conservation and community engagement. Finally, Eni aims at enhancing the biodiversity in the project area, in terms of protection of bio-corridors for endangered animal species.

Our system of accreditation

Eni certifies the carbon reductions from REDD+ projects according to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Climate Community and Biodiversity Standard (CCB), mainly triple gold, issued by the international body VERRA. A third-party auditor approval is also required in the certification process.

Our partners

Over recent years, Eni has built strong partnerships with recognized international developers such as BioCarbon Partners, Peace Parks Foundation, First Climate, Carbonsink, Terra Global, Unique and Carbon Credit Consulting. In 2018, Eni signed a MoU with UNDP for the cooperation in the field of sustainable energy and climate change, including the development of REDD+ initiatives.

Our locations

We are working at locations across Angola, Cote d`Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, Rwanda, Vietnam, and Zambia.

We have ongoing projects in Zambia and Mexico and we are working on a set of new initiatives in several countries among which Mexico, Mozambique, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Angola, and Vietnam.

Our implementation progress

Pledge implementation progress reporting is managed in collaboration with IUCN’s Restoration Barometer, and is required annually from the year following pledge publication.