The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) relies on transparency and trust to maintain the value and profitability of carbon projects for stakeholders. In recent years, the quality of ‘carbon credits’ has been called into question, resulting in the emergence of carbon rating agencies who conduct impartial evaluations of projects and credits. Scale for Carbon Organic Resilient Ethereal (SCORE) is a satellite-based rating service which supports the entire lifecycle of carbon projects, from identifying areas with potential to generate lasting carbon impact to ongoing evaluation and monitoring. The SCORE study was developed by Uptoearth GmbH under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme and focuses on nature-based projects, revolutionising carbon-ratings with science-driven, reliable solutions for agricultural, coastal and urban areas.

SCORE addresses the needs of both the supply and sales sectors of the VCM, including public and private carbon project developers, carbon credit marketplaces and brokers.  Areas are classified based on their storage capacity: those already at maximum capacity, where conservation is recommended, and those at risk, where restoration is needed. SCORE not only generates a rating of the environmental impact quality of projects but utilises past, present and future trends to forecast, advise and plan how to increase the value and quality of carbon projects over time, reducing the risk of downgrading. This level of detail enables users to identify the most reliable, impactful and profitable projects.

Embedding satellite technology throughout reduces the need for costly consultancy and localised assessments, providing a scalable and cost-efficient solution to managing and evaluating carbon projects. Ongoing monitoring and assessment enhance the credibility of the carbon market, reassuring investors that projects are not only delivering profits but also providing environmental and societal benefits.

During the study, UTE developed proof of concept (POC)s for each ecosystem: a forested area in Brazil, a wheatbelt in an agricultural area of Western Australia, the urban and peri-urban area of Padova City, Italy and a coastal area in Ischia Island, Italy. UTE consulted champion users to ensure the key VCM stakeholders were empowered to start and manage carbon projects, including work with insurers to de-risk carbon projects and improve their profitability.

SCORE integrates satellite-based Earth observation (EO) assets with environmental analysis, and simulation tools to create comprehensive, easily accessible maps and reports for diverse users. These are tailored to each ecosystem and understandable to experts and non-experts alike. Leveraging advanced EO data ensures continuous, reliable monitoring of land use, vegetation health, biomass and carbon sequestration. SCORE exceeds non-satellite methodologies as it incorporates temporal data from historical satellite archives with frequent revisits of modern satellites to provide up-to-date insights, offering forecasts and simulating future scenarios to manage risk.  The robust rating service enables users to enhance project performance, reduce risks, and drive investment in impactful climate solutions.

“We are pleased to support Uptoearth in this study” said Ana Raposo, Business Applications and Partnerships Officer at ESA. “The SCORE service has achieved commercial, societal and environmental success at an early stage, encouraging investment in carbon projects, supporting climate resilience and impactful projects”

“Carbon removals are not just an option — they are a vital ally, alongside decarbonisation, in reaching net zero. Yet before questioning the quality of nature-based carbon credits, we must first ask a deeper question: is this massive global investment truly worthwhile? In this moment of uncertainty, SCORE was created to bring clarity — harnessing the power of satellite data to strengthen Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) and to ensure that every effort counts towards a more sustainable future” said Filippo Iodice, CEO of Uptoearth GmbH.

 

The POCs successfully showed high levels of accuracy against ground truth data, and results were validated by customers and at leading conferences.  This success has resulted in partnership agreements with WE2Sure and the Stoic Foundation and four new service contracts, generating over €56,100 from SCORE’s intermediate products, have been signed. UTE are now working on two more demos, one in the Balearic Islands, Spain, and another one in Sardinia, Italy, and are launching a marketing campaign to scale the service.

ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) team had a busy week in Barcelona recently, showcasing how space technologies can drive innovation in smart and green cities at Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC), the largest event of its kind in Europe.

Space technologies, assets and data are playing an increasingly important role in helping city leaders address the multiple challenges they face, from air quality and traffic management to infrastructure development and maintenance, not to mention health, education and general wellbeing or city residents. SCEWC was a unique opportunity to engage with cities and tech companies from around the world, to share experiences and best practice, and to showcase the potential of space in improving our urban spaces.

Pictured from left to right: Yusuke Muraki (Advisor to the Directors at JAXA), Alex Gluhak (Senior Technical Advisor at OASC), Beatrice Barresi (Senior Sustainable Applications Officer at ESA), Coco Antonissen (Program Manager for Space Applications at NSO), and Takayuki Odawara (Executive Officer at Synspective Inc).

Over the past 10 years, BASS has invested more than €33 million to boost almost 70 Smart Cities-related activities using space technologies and data. This year at SCEWC, the BASS stand hosted some of those business partners whose projects have been supported by the BASS programme, including: 

• The Leomanni brothers, Luca and Simone Leomanni, from Social Tech Projects in Denmark, with their project that monitors the condition and safety of roads and cycle lanes using automated AI algorithms;
• Stefan Beck from greenventory, a high-tech startup from Freiburg, Germany that provides cities the ability to achieving the energy transition by offering the decision-making and data basis that enables forward-looking planning of energy systems;
• Victor Miherea from Stratobotic, an innovative startup based in Turin, Italy that focuses on the design of an innovative low-cost and low-latency micro-platform that works in constellations and swarms to offer various services using Earth Observation and Satellite Communication technologies;
• Layth Sahib from Spatial Business Integration GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany, whose Blue 4 Green project with BASS helps create a greener future for cities by enhancing the resilience and adaptive capacity of urban green spaces.

Simone Leomanni, when asked about their journey with ESA BASS, said: “We were first incubated in Denmark and then continued our journey with the ESA BASS programme. Being here at the booth has led a lot of great connections, potential partners, and future collaborations.”

Pictured clockwise from top left: Luca Leomanni and Simone Leomanni (Social Tech Projects), Stefan Beck (greenventory), Victor Miherea (Stratobotic), and Layth Sahib (Spatial Business Integration GmbH) with Beatrice Barresi (Senior Sustainable Applications Officer at ESA).

During the three days in Barcelona, the BASS team spoke to many individuals and hosted several groups at the stand. FCC Medio Ambiente and the Asociación ONCE organised guided tours for groups of visually impaired visitors at SCEWC; one group visited the stand to understand more about how ESA BASS is delivering on one of its key objectives – using space data to create more inclusive cities. Discussions focused on how BASS is supporting European businesses to leverage Earth observation, GNSS and satcom technologies to address urban challenges including accessibility, sustainable mobility and data-driven urban design.

A group of 28 students and their supervisors from the Institut Pla de l’Estany – a public secondary and vocational education centre located in Banyoles, Catalonia offering advanced training in technology and software development – also visited the ESA Space Solutions booth. The visiting students, enrolled in the Advanced Vocational Training Programme in Cross-Platform Application Development, were keen to find out more about the role of space technologies in supporting smart cities innovation.

Representatives from the ESA BASS programme participated in panel discussions during SCEWC, including Beatrice Barresi, Senior Sustainable Applications Officer at ESA, who took part in two panel discussions, during which she spoke about how satellite assets, technology and data are helping build smart, resilient cities 

“It is our second year at SCEWC and we are more excited than ever to be here,” said Mrs Barresi. “It is a fantastic opportunity to connect with cities, expand the Space for Smart and Green Cities Task Force and to better understand their needs and challenges. We are also here to meet companies that are leveraging space and other cutting-edge technologies to help cities overcome these challenges and to grow commercially and expand their market impact. We will definitely be back next year!”

Pictured from left to right: Alexander Schmidt (CEO of BABLE Smart Cities), Roser Roca (Managing Director & CEO of Airbus GeoTech), and Beatrice Barresi (Senior Sustainable Applications Officer at ESA).

Nil Angli, Maritime Lead for ESA BASS, took part in the panel: ‘Cybersecurity Without Borders: Securing Smart Ports in a Hyper-Connected Global Trade Ecosystem.’ This session was a fascinating discussion centred around the digitisation of ports and the adoption of smart technologies such as AI, IoT, digital twins and autonomous systems, which can create enormous efficiencies but also introduce new vulnerabilities. The panellists shared their thoughts on regional and cross-continental strategies to protect critical port infrastructure from cyber threats that have the potential to cripple global supply chains.

Nil Angli (Maritime Lead for ESA BASS) speaking during the ‘Cybersecurity Without Borders: Securing Smart Ports in a Hyper-Connected Global Trade Ecosystem’ panel on the Tomorrow. Blue Economy congress stage.

With city leaders seeking to keep citizens at the forefront of their decisions as they address multiple technical, financial and environmental challenges, developing business applications that prioritise inclusiveness in our cities is vital. Among the many visitors to the stand were representatives from cities from across Europe - including some of the Smart and Green Cities Task Force members – as well as tech developers and business leaders. These included a Spanish Chamber of Commerce delegation, who discussed potential collaboration pathways to support dual-use innovation, SME acceleration, and investment readiness in the space-enabled urban solutions sector. 

Driving change forward in our cities and urban spaces is vital, and pairing space assets and data with next generation technologies such as AI, digital twins and intelligent automation is already helping to develop nature-based solutions and regenerative by-design models which are defining clean, efficient and inclusive urban spaces for future generations to live and work. We are already looking forward to the conversations we will have and the connections we will make in Barcelona next year.

Industrial agricultural practices have caused the world’s soils to lose 116 billion tons of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), reducing the fertility of soils and contributing to global warming. Carbon farming – a subset of regenerative agriculture – aims to counter this by sequestering CO2 in the soil and in vegetation, while also generating carbon credits that provide additional revenue per hectare for farmers.  Tapping into this growing market, German company Spacenus developed the scalable, protocol-compliant satellite-based MRV solution (SatMRV) with the support of the ESA Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme. 

The SatMRV service addresses a critical market need for accurate and affordable SOC mapping, essential for carbon credit generation, achieving Scope 3 emission reduction goals for food companies, and for supporting regenerative agriculture practices. Currently, the traditional way to confidently assess SOC stock change over time is to take a large number of soil samples periodically. The high costs and complexity of the process increase carbon credit generation costs for project developers and make it harder for farmers to participate in carbon farming projects – despite the global carbon credit market growing at pace, with estimates suggesting it could be worth up to US$40 billion by 2030.  
Using satellite data together with machine-learning and soil samples, the SatMRV service aims to maximise revenue from sequestered SOC by reducing soil sampling costs by:

• minimising the number of soil samples required, significantly lowering the costs
• improving the accuracy and spatial resolution of SOC maps
• ensuring alignment with major carbon certification protocols
• delivering low margins of error to increase confidence in reported outcomes
• offering a scalable, globally adaptable solution for diverse agricultural systems

Spacenus CEO Riazuddin Kawsar explained: “What is currently available for carbon projects is high cost and complex – and not scalable. Working with ESA BASS has been invaluable in helping us develop and pilot a solution that changes that by integrating satellite data, AI and digital workflows, and offers low-cost SOC mapping at scale.”
“With SatMRV a 100-hectare field can be processed in less than a minute, and on average we need one sample per 16 hectares, which is half the samples compared to what carbon projects currently usually collect.”
The reduced costs make carbon farming more financially attractive for farmers. 
“We find the per hectare MRV cost is less than 5% of the credit earning. So, there is a good business case for voluntary carbon market to generate carbon credits,” Mr Kawsar said.

Another important element that gives SatMRV a competitive edge is its compliance with carbon protocols around the world.

Mr Kawsar said: “It is so important not just to measure but also to be protocol-compliant, so that the measurements can be used for carbon credits and Scope 3 emission projects.”

The key user and customer groups to benefit from the new service are:

• Farmers: easy-to-use platform to share and manage data on their farms for the duration of the carbon farming project.
• Consultants: easy-to-use platform to help them manage multiple farms and monitor operations during the duration of the carbon farming project.
• Regenerative / carbon farming companies: these companies generate carbon credits based on the amount of carbon that is being sequestered and pays the farmers for it. This is a cost-effective solution for them to measure SOC stock and validate its changes over time.
• Food companies and retailing: they need reliable carbon credit generation to decarbonise their supply chains to achieve Scope 3 reductions in and compliance with the EU’s CSRD regulations.

With the support of the ESA BASS programme, the SatMRV service carried out nine pilots worldwide, successfully testing and validating the value and usability of the technical aspects of the service and its outputs, and resulted in commercial success with 67% of the free pilots requesting paid engagement.

Beatrice Barresi, Senior Sustainable Applications Officer at ESA, said: “This has been a great project, which clearly shows the huge positive difference satellite data can make when applied to challenges here on Earth. We are excited to see how SatMRV will continue to boost the carbon credit market and to develop and grow from here, applying learnings from the pilot projects.”