Carbon ‘known not grown’: Reforesting Scotland, advanced measurement technologies, and a new frontier of mitigation deterrence

Abstract

Drones, lasers and satellites measure forests with seemingly unprecedented detail. In Scotland, private companies are bringing these Advanced Measurement Technologies (AMTs) from ecological science to market. Companies offer landowners the chance to independently measure and verify natural capital commodities, such as woodland carbon credits, using these technologies. Drawing from 61 interviews with stakeholders in the Scottish land sector, alongside six months of ethnographic research, this paper explores the climate governance consequences of high-tech forest carbon measurement. The argument develops from the well-established premise within environmental STS that technologies’ apparent objectivity and impartiality obscures the political-economic motivations shaping their use. In Scotland, AMTs are reflexively developed to generate increased financial value from forest creation schemes. AMTs find more carbon in forests than standard measurement practices allow. Carbon is ‘known not grown’: more numerous and legitimate carbon credits can be created through a shift in knowledge practices rather than a material shift in nature-based carbon sequestration. Three epistemic processes allow for more carbon to be ‘known not grown’. Firstly, more carbon volume can be identified within a forest by using sophisticated measurement techniques. Secondly, conservative carbon estimates can be bypassed because of the perceived precision of AMTs. Thirdly, AMT developers cultivate a situated form of measurement accuracy by drawing upon a selective uptake of science. This paper argues ‘known not grown’ is a novel type of mitigation deterrence. It is a dangerous yet increasingly widespread phenomenon in neoliberal environmental governance and requires further empirical investigation.