Altan is a c.1,370 acre site primarily comprising of blanket peatland located in county Donegal in the northwest of Ireland.
In May 2024, EGT signed an exclusive 12-month option to investigate the potential to develop a peatland carbon sink programme and generate carbon credits in Ireland
Key Project Takeaways
The option offers full, exclusive access to conduct additional due diligence on the proposed Carbon Credit Project over a 12-month period.
We intend to develop a revenue sharing model with landowner by generating and trading carbon credits – we do not intend to acquire the land from the landowner.
Low capital expenditures are anticipated.
Potential to rapidly scale carbon credit generation model significantly across multiple other sites, successfully replicating similar models implemented in Scotland.
We will conduct further diligence activities to ascertain the work required to commence the generation of carbon credits at Altan.
Overview of the Altan Farm opportunity
The Altan Farm is located in county Donegal in the northwest of Ireland. It is 1,370 acres of mainly blanket peatland. Peatlands are an ecosystem of immense carbon storage potential, acting as natural carbon sinks. Peatlands are characterised by permanently waterlogged conditions that prevent plant material from fully decomposing, keeping carbon locked in and preventing it from entering the atmosphere as greenhouse gas.
Peatland covers 1.5 million hectares of land in Ireland, however most of our blanket bog habitats are in poor condition due to human activity and, as a result, are not functioning as they should. Degradation and overexploitation of peatland landscapes release huge quantities of carbon and other harmful greenhouse gasses. Rather than absorbing carbon from the atmosphere, degraded peatlands leak carbon back into the environment, which had previously been stored in the peat for thousands of years.
A Scalable Revenue-Sharing Business Model
We intend to generate carbon credits from restoring the degraded blanket bog at Altan, restoring the peatlands’ ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The due diligence period gives us sufficient time to ascertain the commercial potential to commence the generation of carbon credits in a capital efficient manner.
We intend to enter a revenue sharing model with the landowner so we do not need to acquire the land, and we will look to scale the project significantly across other peatlands in Ireland. This revenue sharing model will enable us to not only generate carbon credits but also to trade them with third parties, particularly corporates looking to move towards carbon neutral targets.
This opportunity has the potential to not only develop our prospective carbon credit revenue stream, but also to contribute positively to Ireland’s climate goals.
Voluntary Carbon Credit Market
The voluntary carbon market functions outside of the compliance market. When emissions from company activities are unavoidable, carbon credits can help to offset a carbon footprint.
Carbon credits play a significant role in the push for net zero. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero by mid-century, limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and carbon pricing helps achieve this by incentivising emission reduction. Each carbon credit represents one tonne of CO₂ reduced or removed, independently verified against robust accounting methodologies.
The market for voluntary carbon credits has grown enormously over the last few years, reaching a value of $2bn in 2022, four times its value in 2020. According to McKinsey, the market is projected to grow by a factor of 15 or more by 2030 to $50bn as companies progress towards carbon-neutrality goals.
Other European countries already have a thriving carbon credit industry, generating credits from peatland sinks among other sources. Scotland actively restores its peatland for carbon sequestration, and projects involving over 60,000 hectares of land earmarked for forestry and peatland restoration could absorb approximately 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the next century. The Netherlands has adopted policy instruments to achieve carbon neutrality in its manufacturing sector by 2050, with a carbon levy setting an ambitious price trajectory to 2030.
Key Facts about Peatlands
Peatlands continue to be degraded around the world. About 12% of the world’s peatlands have been drained for agricultural and forestry use with degraded peatlands accounting for 4% of global annual emissions.
The European Union has experienced the largest losses, with over 50% of former peatland areas no longer accumulating peat. Peatlands cover 1.5 million hectares in Ireland and approximately 30% have been degraded through activities such as draining and agricultural practices.
Restoring European peatlands would prevent roughly the same amount of annual emissions as taking 84 million passenger vehicles off the roads.
Drained and degraded peatlands currently emit around twice as much greenhouse gas as the aviation industry.
Peatlands are vital ecosystems in the fight against climate change, covering just 3% of the world’s surface yet holding nearly 30% of all natural carbon – almost twice as much as the entirety of Earth’s forest biomass.
The UN has estimated that Ireland’s degraded peatlands emit 21.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, and Ireland has recently been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union for failure to protect its peat bogs.
