Ex-BP boss gets licence for major mangrove project

A company founded and controlled by a former BP executive has won a licence to restore and protect mangrove forests in Mozambique, Africa's biggest such project yet. Fin24 reports that the UAE-based Blue Forest plans to start planting 200m mangrove trees in a concession twice the size of Singapore in November. It is helping to finance the project by pre-selling emissions offsets based on the carbon the coastal trees absorb. The company has spent $1m on preparing for the task, which will cost a further $60m. Mangroves, which mainly grow in salty and brackish water along coastlines, absorb as many as 10 times the carbon that most terrestrial trees take up, making them a powerful tool in the fight against global warming. That trapped carbon can be used to generate offsets, known as carbon credits, that emitters can buy to compensate for the climate-warming gases their operations release.