September 23 International Fertilizer and Agriculture News

Low Rhine Water Levels Disrupt Barge Traffic in Germany This Week

Shipowners said that persistent dry weather would make regular barge navigation on Germany’s main Rhine channel largely impossible this week. According to data from the German Federal Waterways and Shipping Administration, the water level at Kaub, a shipping chokepoint, was 15 centimeters on September 21 and is expected to fall further to approximately 6 centimeters by September 25. The historical low was recorded at 5 centimeters in August this year. At such water levels, regular barges must suspend operations on the upper Rhine between Bingen and the Swiss border. In Duisburg, north of Kaub, the water level is forecast to fall to 136 centimeters this week, while the level in Cologne is expected to decline to 51 centimeters. Shipowners said that by the end of this week, barges traveling to Duisburg and the Lower Rhine would be limited to cargoes of 400-500 tonnes. Cologne Port would then no longer be able to load regular barges. At the same time as cargo restrictions are being imposed, demand for heating oil in Germany is rising as winter approaches. Because end users’ tank inventories are low, nationwide heating-oil demand has increased since the beginning of September, and traders expect purchasing demand to rise further in early October. Inland barge freight rates have increased but have not yet reached their August highs. Shipowners said that most destinations along the Rhine were now unsuitable for regular barges, with shipping risks exceeding the level that companies were willing to assume. Storage facilities along the upper Rhine can currently be supplied only by a small number of specialized vessels.

Puro.earth Launches Environmental Attribute Registry

Puro.earth, a Helsinki-based carbon registry service provider, has launched a new environmental attribute standard and registry system, initially to track carbon intensity in the agricultural sector. The first phase will focus on feedstocks for clean fuels. Starting at the farm level, the registry will record carbon-intensity scores throughout established stages of the agricultural supply chain, with each transfer point time-stamped to support audit verification. Under established chain-of-custody and mass-balance rules, carbon-intensity attributes will remain linked to the corresponding physical commodities. The system will not use a book-and-claim model to generate certificates that can be traded separately from the physical goods. Each environmental attribute certificate will correspond to a specific quantity of goods, a designated year and a geolocated agricultural plot. These environmental attributes will remain separate from carbon credits and carbon-removal certificates issued by other registries or projects, but can support various environmental compliance claims, such as providing data for sustainability verification of biomethane. Market participants and auditors will be able to review the attributes’ origin, ownership, transfer records, retirement status and eligibility for compliance claims. Puro will also conduct certification work to verify whether suppliers have correctly implemented existing third-party accounting methodologies for specific crops and applications, including methodologies under regulatory compliance frameworks. Puro said that as the Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Forest, Land and Agriculture guidance and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s (GHG Protocol) Land Sector and Removals Standard are updated, companies will face new compliance obligations. The new registry system can help companies address these requirements. Puro’s standard is one of the most widely used carbon-dioxide-removal credit standards in the voluntary carbon market. Approximately 800 purchasing organizations currently trade through its existing registry platform.