WCC Statistics
Interim Statistics - 30 September 2023
Project Data
- Number of WCC projects, by status and Country
- Area of WCC projects, by status and Country
- Projected carbon sequestration of WCC projects, by status and Country
- Further details of validated and verified projects
- Map of WCC projects, by status
Carbon Unit Data
- Number of Woodland Carbon Units and Pending Issuance Units, by availability
- When will Pending Issuance Units convert to verified Woodland Carbon Units?
Official Statistics - Annual at 31 March
- Woodland Carbon Code 31 March 2022 and earlier years in Forestry Statistics 2022 (Forest Research publication)
Number of Woodland Carbon Code Projects on the UK Land Carbon Registry - Interim statistics as of 30 September 2023
| Number of projects | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Under Development |
602 | 214 | 495 | 124 | 1,435 |
| Validated only | 90 | 35 | 294 | 7 | 426 |
| Verified at year 5 | 46 | 6 | 73 | 1 | 126 |
| Total Validated | 136 | 41 | 367 | 8 | 552 |
| All Projects | 738 | 255 | 862 | 132 | 1,987 |
Note: Projects can be validated/verified individually or as part of a group. This table shows the number of projects validated or verified, whether they were adminsitered individually or as part of a group.
Area of Woodland Carbon Code Projects on the UK Land Carbon Registry - Interim statistics as of 30 September 2023
| Area (hectares) | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Under Development |
6,574 | 2,077 | 37,371 | 805 | 46,827 |
| Validated only | 2,121 | 794 | 21,761 | 85 | 24,760 |
| Verified at year 5 | 697 | 131 | 3,915 | 9 | 4,751 |
| Total Validated | 2,817 | 924 | 25676 | 94 | 29,511 |
| All Projects | 9,392 | 3,001 | 63,047 | 898 | 76,338 |
Projected Carbon Sequestration of Woodland Carbon Code projects - Interim statistics as of 30 September 2023
| Projected Sequestration (Million tCO2e) | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland | UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Under Development |
2.8 | 0.7 | 11.1 | 0.3 | 14.9 |
| Validated only | 0.9 | 0.3 | 6.8 | 0.03 | 8.1 |
| Verified at year 5 | 0.4 | 0.07 | 1.6 | <0.01 | 2.1 |
| Total Validated | 1.3 | 0.4 | 8.4 | 0.04 | 10.1 |
| All Projects | 4.1 | 1.0 | 19.6 | 0.4 | 25.1 |
Note: These figures include both the carbon units which can be sold and those which are allocated to the WCC buffer.
Size of validated and verified projects, number of projects by country - 30 September 2023
Species mix of validated and verified projects, by area and country - 30 September 2023
Note: In Scotland, conifers include native Scots Pine, frequently planted as part of native woodlands.
Management of validated and verified projects, by area and country - 30 September 2023
Note: CCF is Continuous Cover Forestry.
Number of Woodland Carbon Units available on the UK Land Carbon Registry - 30 September 2023
1 Carbon Unit = 1 Tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent
'Available for sale' units are for sale by the project developer or a retail aggregator - Find out how and where to buy.
'Already sold' units are either transferred from the project developer to a corporate buyer's account, or assigned to a corporate buyer (if PIU)
Landowners 'growing their own' units are owned by organisations planning to use the units that will be verified against emissions within their own company/organisational boundaries (insetting).
'Retired WCU' are verifed credits which are 'retired', or taken out of use by the final user.
WCC Buffer Units are units which are put aside and stored in a shared buffer pool in case of any future loss of WCU.
| Available for sale | Already sold | Landowners 'growing their own' units | Retired WCU | WCC Buffer Units | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Pending Issuance Units |
3,745,000 | 3,309,000 | 91,000 | -- | 1,814,000 | 8,959,000 |
| Woodland Carbon Units | 800 | 3,500 | 1,100 | 4,600 | 2,300 | 12,300 |
Note, Pending Issuance Units are validated units of CO2e which are projected to be delivered/sequestered in future; Woodland Carbon Units are verified units of actual sequestered CO2e.
When will Pending Issuance Units convert to verifed Woodland Carbon Units? - 30 September 2023
Woodlands validated to the Woodland Carbon Code will sequester carbon dioxide over the coming 100 years. The chart below shows the projected annual 'conversion rate' of PIUs to WCUs over that time period (black line), and the cumulative sequestration of validated projects over that time (bars). As more projects are validated to the standard, there will be more units available and the conversion rate will increase. Verifed WCU and Buffer Units are not included on the chart.
