European Green Transition (EGT) has entered into an exclusive option agreement to investigate the potential development of a peatland carbon sink programme that would in turn generate carbon credits at the Altan farm in Donegal, Ireland.
Altan comprises approximately 1,370 acres of blanket peatland.
The option offers EGT full, exclusive access to conduct additional due diligence on the proposed carbon credit project over a 12-month period.
During the due diligence phase, EGT will engage with all relevant stakeholders to ensure the project aligns with the Company's ESG standards.
The company has paid a fee of €100,000 to the Landowner as consideration for entering into the option.
Should EGT exercise the option it would expect to monetise the project by generating revenue through carbon credits.
However, EGT does not intend to acquire the land from the landowner. Rather it intends to generate carbon credits through a revenue sharing model with the landowner, ensuring low capital expenditures.
The company intends to replicate this revenue sharing model, building a portfolio of peatland carbon credit projects, similar to a number of successfully implemented projects in Scotland.
In time, EGT could extend this business to trading third party carbon credits outside of its own portfolio of carbon credit generating projects.
"The Altan Option agreement offers EGT the opportunity to generate cash flow in a capital light manner by generating carbon credits,” said Jack Kelly, chief financial officer of European Green Transition.
“The market for voluntary carbon credits is projected to grow by a factor of 15 or more by 2030 as companies progress towards carbon-neutrality goals, and this agreement offers us an entry point into this high-growth market. 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.”
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European Green Transition is now beginning to make good on its promise to build a diverse portfolio of assets in the green energy space.
Other European countries, particularly Scotland, already have a thriving carbon credit industry, generating credits from peatland sinks. 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.
All told, the company has hit the ground running since listing just a few short weeks ago, and the pace of deal-making and portfolio diversification is very encouraging.