Vireo Nature · Free calculator
Peatland carbon calculator
A free peatland carbon calculator for your bog, in tonnes. Enter each part, its area and its condition today, and see the emissions reduction the Peatland Code's arithmetic gives, with every step and source shown.
This calculator covers peat bog under the Peatland Code. Other carbon standards, and tools for water, biodiversity net gain, and land and farming, are in development.
Describe your bog. See the tonnes.
The calculator runs in your browser. What you enter here is not sent anywhere.
How the Peatland Code gets from gross to claimable.
Compare up to three scenarios.
Part of the site against all of it, or 30 years against 50. Save what is on screen, change the inputs, save again. Select a saved scenario to load it back.
A record anyone can re-run.
- The inputs as entered
- The working, line by line
- The eight factor source lines
- The test record
- The calculation version and its fingerprint
How the peatland carbon calculator works.
The arithmetic, in five steps
- Gross for each unit: area, times the saving per hectare per year, times the years.
- Site gross: the sum of the units.
- After the Code's 5 per cent: site gross less 5 per cent, in whole tonnes.
- Risk Buffer: 20 per cent of that figure, in whole tonnes.
- Claimable: that figure less the Risk Buffer.
A worked example
Questions
What is the Peatland Code?
A voluntary certification standard for UK peatland restoration projects, managed by the IUCN UK Peatland Programme.
What does claimable mean?
The figure after the Code's 5 per cent, less the Risk Buffer. Here it is the last line of the bog arithmetic for the inputs entered, before the carbon cost of the restoration works and any leakage, which a registered project also deducts.
Why 5 per cent and 20 per cent?
The Code takes 5 per cent off the gross figure to keep the estimate conservative. It then places 20 per cent of what is left in its Risk Buffer, against reversal.
Which starting conditions can I choose?
The four the Code's bog calculator accepts as a starting condition: actively eroding (flat bare, or hagg and gully) and drained (artificial, or hagg and gully). The condition after restoration is set by the Code.
What is a unit?
A part of the site in one condition. The Code calls it an assessment unit. It is not a carbon unit. The calculator takes one to ten.
Is anything I enter sent to Vireo?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing is sent unless you choose to send the form.
What project lengths can I use?
Project length runs from 30 to 100 years. This calculator works in five-year steps, as the Code's own calculator does. Any other length gives no figure, with the reason and the nearest length the calculator accepts.
How much carbon do UK peatlands store?
Over three billion tonnes of carbon, across about two million hectares. At least 80 per cent of UK peatland is damaged, and damaged peat emits about 29.8 million tonnes of CO2e a year. Source: IUCN UK Peatland Programme.
How do I have my own site assessed?
Send us your site. The team reads it by hand and replies with what the evidence shows.
- t CO2e
- Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent: the common unit for greenhouse gases.
- Emission factor
- The tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent a hectare of peat in a given condition emits in a year.
- Gross
- The emissions reduction before any deduction.
- After the Code's 5 per cent
- Site gross less the Code's 5 per cent, in whole tonnes.
- Risk Buffer
- 20 per cent of the figure after the Code's 5 per cent, which the Code holds against reversal.
- Claimable
- The figure after the Code's 5 per cent, less the Risk Buffer.
- Unit
- A part of the site in one condition (an assessment unit).
- Fingerprint
- A sha256 code of the calculation file. If the file changes at all, the code changes.
Send us your site: what a calculator cannot see.
The calculator knows only what you type. The team reads your actual site by hand and replies with what the evidence shows.
More calculators, coming soon.
Other carbon standards, and tools for water, biodiversity net gain, and land and farming, are in development: sources shown, working shown, a result anyone can re-run.