FAQs

Q?

We would like to talk further about a national system

A.

We would like to talk to you. A large part of our motivation in developing the Tarah system has been to correct the imbalance in opportunity that the general unavailability of this technology has created. We think that if forward-looking countries adopt great technology, everybody wins.

We want to show the world that advanced capabilities are something that need not be the preserve only of the largest economies. This type of environmentally conscious technology is something especially suited to being delivered by countries that are doing things their own way. Every country is different, and the best technologies are the ones that support that uniqueness.

If you would like to contact us, our contact details can be accessed by clicking here.

Q?

Does Tarah support Carbon Trading?

A.

Tarah and the GEObjects products suite sit above the level of carbon trading.

The GEObjects products are intended to help the national government administer, regulate, and develop the carbon credit creation methods, credit certification, carbon auditing, policy and initiative creation, and the establishment of carbon credit production, registries, trading, and compliance.As such, our products are the enabler for governments to create or enhance carbon trading in their economy, and into the international markets, as well as to interact with the international community and the United Nations.

For services, consulting, tools and software for trading carbon, we recommend our carbon trading partner, Carbon Junction. Contact us for more information.

GEObjects also offers, by popular demand, Nexus, a software and regulatory solution for establishing an ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme) which can launch a country's carbon market infrastructure rapidly into operation.

Q?

How does GEObjects work with the local community?

A.

GEObjects works with local authorities, national institutes, industry groups, the national academy, government agencies, community groups, and with our NGO partners when implementing GEObjects systems. Tarah, for example, requires nationally relevant information as inputs and produces nationally significant information. It is managed and operated by local experts, not by GEObjects.

GEObjects supplies the software and assists with training and maintenance, but the real expertise for operation of the system is local. We can't be more expert about a country than the people of that country.

For this reason, our products and services are focused on building a truly national capability that is world-leading.

Our products are also designed to support existing national schemes and initiatives, such as industry and rural development programmes, social equity projects, and REDD programmes. GEObjects products use and promote local academic research and through the use of the system in international reporting, promote national academic research into a global venue, building both capability and recognition of national scientific achievement.

Q?

Can Tarah support agriculture and forestry?

A.

Very much so. Tarah is able to analyse models of both industries in detail and compute existing carbon states or predict future outcomes and support industry policy formation. Tarah supports outputs for use in greenhouse gas inventory reporting as required by UNFCCC.

Productivity outcomes can be modelled and planned for use by these industries.

Q?

How does Tarah come about and what credibility does it have?

A.

Tarah is a commercial implementation of an environmental analytics system. It is the only complete proprietary product of its type. It was produced by a team of experts who have a background working on the latest generation of the systems used by the most developed nations.

Tarah is built without the burdens of past compromises that are built-in to the systems used by other earlier systems. It is the next-generation solution taken by the people who put the world's leading government-based systems where they are today.

Since the next level of design sophistication was provided to Tarah instead of to the existing systems used by these countries, Tarah takes advantage of advanced designs and features not available anywhere else.

Tarah is simply more advanced than anything that even the most advanced countries currently possess. Tarah's nature as a commercial product means that it can keep up the level of innovation to remain at the forefront of modelling systems technology.

The science and methods used by Tarah are those used and endorsed by the United Nations parties and the scientific veracity is provided by peer-reviewed research. The science is rock solid and completely conventional, but the modelling technology behind it is from the next level. The product is both compliant with world standards in science and also world-beating in terms of system capabilities.

Q?

How can the software move us to the carbon economy?

A.

Carbon is the resource of the future because increasingly, and hereafter, we will need to account for our actions in terms of its pollutant cost. Any restraint on the availability of this resource will be a direct constraint on any activity of commerce. Failure of businesses to show environmental sustainability will translate directly into a failure to demonstrate operational sustainability.
The more industrialised a nation is, the more it needs mitigation in terms of carbon offsets.

Conversely, as other nations develop, they are able to supply offset credits.
Most developing countries are rich in opportunities for supply of offsets through resources, agriculture, forestry, land economics, in their natural landscape, and human industry.

If the less developed nations adopt the tools of the trade for managing carbon policy and establishing offset supply industries, they will have the potential to become the “breadbasket” of the world's carbon suppliers.

Chief among these tools is the sophisticated carbon modelling software as used by the most advanced countries, which provide the ability to formulate national carbon policy, to demonstrate carbon outcomes, to project carbon futures, to support carbon research by national institutions, to bring forth the value in the national carbon economy and connect into the vast international carbon markets, and to take an authoritative position in international climate change and carbon regulation negotiations. The opportunity to become a voice on carbon policy in the forum of international diplomacy and law is not just national, but regional and even representative of entire blocs of nations, such as the regional groups like the UN African Group or any of the other regional groups.

These tools are generally not available to countries outside the small group who developed them. These countries developed them for themselves, and although the obligation exists under the international treaties to share these technologies with other countries, these nations have been understandably slow to offer expertise or assistance. Sharing these systems would allow other countries to share their advantage, or to talk to them in their own terms, or have the same credible information to speak from. It may not be the case, necessarily, that these countries are being evasive about sharing these technologies, but it is the case that they have not been prompt about doing so.

Of the very few countries who have been assisted so far, none can be said to have a truly complete or functional system of their own.

Tarah provides this functionality every bit as strongly as in the most advanced systems in the world. Tarah is a tool that a country can invest in and gain a national capability to build their international economic, social, political, environmental, academic, financial, and diplomatic standing.

Q?

How long will it take to implement the software?

A.

Our engineers give a general estimate of eighteen to twenty-four months (depending on national circumstances) from inception of a national system to operational trials. From there, it’s a matter of when the government is happy with the configuration they’ve installed.

If there are complicating factors, it may take longer to deal with the specific circumstances (for example, simulation of local flood impacts).

Q?

What opportunities will the software create?

A.

It is important to understand how uncommon these advanced systems are. There are three (or arguably four) top-ranked systems in the world. Some other advanced countries also variously use systems of different levels of sophistication, but aren’t generally regarded as comparable to the big three.

It is often asked why these systems are so uncommon. The answer is that they are difficult to set up, require the participation of many workers with expert skills, and these workers are thus rare and very expensive to retain. Indeed, there is a level of rivalry between certain countries to hire them.

For this reason, building a team competent to produce this type of system is a long and difficult process. Most countries that try this find that it is a long process requiring years of committed effort. There is a handful of countries attempting to build these systems and these efforts have already undergone a number of years of trial and error. The costs, of course, have been commensurate with the great effort of these long projects.

The building of a software system of this type needs to be understood not as a large capital works programme, but as the establishment of a national capability – a process that has proved to take years to mature.

By acquiring the software and equipment in a near-working state, being ready for national tailoring, Tarah saves years of effort and cost.

The beauty of the GEObjects approach is that within a short time, the country can begin reporting, planning, and administering using an advanced system. It is the preferred strategy of GEObjects to use local staff where possible and to train them for familiarity with the technology. In this way, using the GEObjects product not only short-cuts the process of getting going, but puts in place local capability from the start.

The value of this competency should not be overlooked, as this type of environmental big data computing is the new wave of computing technology. This field of the computing industry is known as "digital twinning" and is concerned with the applied analysis of "living data" to provide information about the real world by looking incisively into the virtual world.

Using GEObjects places a nation immediately into the leading group of countries in environmental reporting, and it provides an immediate national presence in the new "twin data" industry.

Q?

What are the benefits of the software?

A.

Tarah is based on commonly accepted methodologies that describe ways to calculate results. The fact that a computer is performing these methods adds two great strengths unavailable to humans attempting the task: firstly, humans will never be fast enough to complete the computations within a year (the required reporting cycle) in even a small country if it is to have the type of detail that software provides; and secondly, the computer doesn’t make mistakes or vary its process.

Using our analytics technology also propels the country’s reporting and administration into the same league as the world’s leading countries. Given the UN preference for rewarding demonstrated efforts to improve, this is a valuable position for a country to achieve.

Q?

How new is the software?

A.

Tarah is built from totally new source code incorporating the latest ideas in analytics systems architecture.
The software is more up-to-date than the leading government-built systems.

The developmental codebase has been in testing for about 10 years.

Q?

Is GEObjects a carbon trader?

A.

No. GEObjects is not a carbon trader. We are a software publisher. We publish the world's leading software for environmental analytics. If you require the services of a carbon broker, we can recommend a carbon broker to you, however, we do not normally take an interest in carbon trading other than as a supplier of software tools to support carbon asset management.

Q?

How does the Tarah suite contribute to fairness?

A.

Perhaps the best reason for establishing a Tarah system is that is the leading nations who adopt it pave the way for other nations. The more countries who have access to the system, the fairer the process of international climate negotiations will become, because the more informed and powerful will be the voice of the countries with the information. That means that it's not just the biggest or richest countries that will have the best tools.

Q?

Can GEObjects software make our country a leader?

A.

A country advances itself and its interests when it develops a new national capacity. It took the top advanced nations decades to develop these systems at significant expense, but a wise country can develop them for a minimal price and within a short number of years by adopting the Tarah system. Adding this national capacity shows the way for other countries and indicates a country that has chosen to move forward strongly.

Q?

How does the Tarah suite support improved climate change reporting?

A.

Almost all countries currently perform basic climate change reporting. Countries with the Tarah system can prepare much more sophisticated reporting to participate in international climate agreements, such as the IPCC and UNFCCC processes. Better reporting than the average can lead to better involvement in these international processes, more say in international policy formation, better national profile, and more access to benefits of these processes. A country that reports well can move into position to participate in international carbon trading markets, participate in national, regional, and international climate investment programmes, and can contribute to the global body of knowledge about understanding climate change. Countries with the right tools can report more accurately, in a more sophisticated way, in a more timely fashion, and can boast a better equipped Department of the Environment. This places the nation in a position to be a stronger participant in the international carbon economy.

Q?

Does Tarah contribute directly to economic potential?

A.

Not only does Tarah provide a toolset for improving outcomes for both economic and environmental results for the country, but it supports the development of a new industry.

The system is based on the contributions of local experts. The tool is powerful but the people who use it are the local experts. The new skills and professional capabilities associated with using advanced software of this type creates a new level of experience and capability for local government officers, scientists, industry managers, and others in the national community. These skills are exportable as well as strengthening the local economy. As a trail-blazer, that country is now able to lend technical assistance to others who are yet to adopt advanced systems of this type. The opportunity to explore options and offer help to others enhances regional relationships and creates a strengthening of local industrial and academic capabilities, as well as building the capacity of the regional economy and regional community of nations.

The new advanced modelling capabilities support new foreign investment opportunities.

Q?

Does the Tarah suite promote improved national sciences?

A.

A country possessing an analytics capability like Tarah is in a position to produce much more sophisticated scientific research and more locally-informative scientific knowledge. Both academic and government researchers can use the tool to analyse the country's environmental conditions and can describe newer and more advanced options for improving industry, policy, economic, social and diplomatic outcomes in this sector.

Q?

Why should my country be interested in establishing a Tarah System?

A.

Apart from its core capability for preparing national greenhouse inventories (which can be used for carbon outcome reporting and carbon scheme management), Tarah offers many supplementary benefits:

  • Better Environmental Policy
  • International Recognition
  • Improved Negotiating Position
  • Better Economic Management
  • Better Social Outcomes
  • More Opportunities for Funding
  • A New Industry
  • Better Climate Reporting
  • Leadership
  • Fairness

Q?

What improvement will the Tarah suite offer to environmental policy?

A.

The Tarah system will enable the nation to establish highly informed environmental policies. Tarah supports analytics of the modelling of carbon outcomes by industry, manufacturing, energy, and construction. Tarah also features advanced capabilities for analysing carbon landscapes in multiple sectors and provides powerful tools for developing insights. Projects, reflections, regressions, and other forms of analysis allow outcomes to be understood in both the past and future domains, and depictions of the present state-of-play allow for administrative adjustments to environmental initiatives to reinforce programmatic success. Better use of national assets and resources means better outcomes for the whole nation.

Q?

Will Tarah contribute to international recognition of our carbon mitigation initiatives?

A.

The Tarah system is absolutely cutting edge – so much so, that it advances the state-of-the-art. Establishing a Tarah capability advances the standing of the nation. A country that establishes this capability becomes a peer of the advanced nations in the field of environmental planning. A number of other countries are also now pursuing this capability, including and especially other nations in the WEOG Group (Western European and Others Group): UN group of most advanced nations.
This is the technology that is currently defining the worldwide leadership group in environmental issues.

Q?

How does the Tarah suite improve our negotiating position?

A.

Being able to support your government's preferred position on new international climate rules, agreements, and policies is empowering. A country is stronger when negotiating the best methods for managing environmental issues with the computational systems to back-up its claims and assertions. A country able to speak with the authority of real computed results and real simulated projections can stand up in the international forums with a stature coming from the facts. Such a country can talk face-to-face with any other country and back up their position with figures, using the same tools as the world's most advanced countries. This country can speak in representation of itself and its own interests, and is in a position to represent its region as one that is taking the issue seriously with the infrastructure to demonstrate its credibility.

Q?

Does Tarah help with national economic management?

A.

Better environmental policy means better economic outcomes from industry, especially land based industries, such as forestry, agriculture and farming. These industries are crucial to developing nations, and the voice of developing nations should rightly be foremost in international forums that discuss the land based economy. With the right tools, a country can be in a position to speak with authority.

Q?

Can Tarah promote improved social outcomes?

A.

Application of better management practices in industry means better methods in the field. Better methods mean better opportunities in the community. Better methods mean more social inclusion and better social opportunities. The GEObjects team includes people who have trained and worked in social development.

Our team isn't just engineers and scientists because our product is about results for the whole country.

Q?

Can the Tarah suite lead to funding opportunities?

A.

This type of toolset means that the country can compute outcomes of programmes, projecting expected results into the future. The well-informed proposals this makes possible, the more lucid environmental and economic planning this supports, and the great social potentials this can deliver improve the opportunities for a country seeking grants and assistance with national development programmes and infrastructure projects.