Recently in Carbon Sequestration Category
On Tuesday, the California Climate Action Registry held a public meeting to discuss the latest version of the Urban Forest GHG Project Reporting Protocol. We had a very good turnout, both in person and online with the Webcast. A number of excellent suggestions were made and noted by the Registry representatives. We think that it would be helpful to reiterate those comments in writing to strengthen the case and provide support in the future should it be necessary.
Subject: Urban Forest GHG Project Reporting Protocol
Performance Threshold
In the Protocol version released July 8, the performance thresholds required of municipal, campus, and utility entities were 0.72% annual net tree gain, 0.58% annual net tree gain, and 0.004 trees planted annually per residential customer, respectively. We believe these levels are too high and would be a significant barrier to participation.
At the public meeting, the Registry indicated that it was considering setting the performance threshold for municipalities and campuses at a level that would require the existing urban forest to be maintained at least at its current population. All project trees that exceeded this level could be registered for credit. The threshold for utilities would be reduced to zero as it is not common practice for these entities to offer tree planting programs.
We support setting the performance thresholds at these reduced levels as we believe they properly represent better-than-average performance.
Co-Benefits: Greenhouse Gases, Energy Production
Although we recognize that for reasons of accounting and accuracy, the Registry cannot verify GHG benefits associated with reductions in energy use due to strategic tree planting or with the use of tree residue for bioenergy, we feel these benefits add significant value to tree planting projects in comparison to other GHG reduction measures.
We therefore urge the Registry to emphasize the value of these benefits in the reporting process and to provide a place on the reporting forms for their estimated value to be entered.
Benefits of Trees
In addition, trees provide many other benefits, some of which can be quantified, such as
- reduced energy costs,
- stormwater runoff reduction, and
- air quality improvement,
and others that can be described qualitatively, such as
- conservation education,
- improved human health,
- neighborhood revitalization,
- job training, and
- recycling green waste.
These additional benefits also add significant value to tree planting projects.
We therefore request that the Registry emphasize the value of these benefits in the reporting process and provide a place on the reporting forms where their estimated value can be entered and a qualitative description can be provided.
Other Types of Entities
Currently, the Protocol only allows for projects undertaken by municipalities, utility companies, and educational campuses to be registered. Often, however, other entities, in particular nonprofit tree advocacy groups, take the lead in spearheading tree planting projects.
At the public meeting, two potential concerns for including other entities were mentioned: the questionable longevity of other entities, especially nonprofit organizations, and the lack of available data for setting a performance threshold. We note first that the entire premise of the Registry relies on assuming the longevity of the nonprofit Registry itself. Therefore, we consider this concern to be shared equally between those doing the reporting and those accepting and verifying the reports. We encourage the Registry to determine whether sufficient historic data exist and whether a suitable matrix can be developed to create a performance threshold before deciding to exclude other entities.
We therefore encourage the Registry to consider adding other entities, in particular nonprofit tree advocacy groups, to the list of participating entities.
SOURCE: California Releaf
In October, 2007, California Air Resources Board (CARB) adoptd the first standards in the US for forest-generated, carbon dioxide emissions reduction projects. This step is a voluntary, early action set of standards that will help California reach its recent Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).
This adoption ensures that emissions reductions from forests certified under the "Forest protocols" developed by the California Climate Action Registry will be recognized in California's emerging climate program.
Forest Protocols for CO2 Emissions Reduction
The protocols were developed over four years by scientists, foresters, climate experts and other stakeholders to ensure CO2 emissions reductions from working forests. They will also meet international standards for a credible, transparent accounting method.
Van Eck Redwood Forest Project
The 2200 acre Van Eck Forest Project in Humboldt Co, California, a working redwood forest, was the first to apply the new Protocols. Two certification teams are involved in the review and verification process -- SGS North America, a global verification leader, and Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) the leading U.S. independent forestry certifier. After certification, the forest will be monitored annually for compliance and annual reports will also be independently verified.
Once certified, the owners of the forest expect to sell substantial emissions reduction offsets in the international carbon market.
Carbon Sequestration by Forests
Forests like this provide climate benefits by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and storing it as carbon in trees for hundreds of years. Compared to reforestation or afforestation techniques, managing established, working forests to achieve climate benefits is effective due to the fact that older forests have the ability to lay down greater volumes of carbon in shorter periods of time than younger forests.
In addition, forests prevent loss to development that harvests millions of board feet of living filtration systems provided by trees. By managing forests to grow older, these mature trees store more carbon than commercial redwood forests usually do. Selective logging that removes less timber volume than is grown each year increases the CO2 capture while maintaining revenue from responsible harvesting.
SOURCE: ForestLife, Winter 2007, The Pacific Forest Trust
Planting a billion trees is an astonishing number! The Nature Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees Campaign will preserve and restore Brazil's Atlantic Forest.
The threat is dire. "No tropical forest on earth has come closer to total destruction," says Claudia Picone, an information resource coordinator for The Nature Conservancy.
The Atlantic Forest is a spectacularly complex and biologically diverse expanse of tropical rainforest on the coast of Brazil. Once twice the size of Texas, only 7 percent of the original forest remains—it has been ravaged by ranching, illegal logging, agriculture, and other pressures.
The campaign to plant one billion trees in the Atlantic Forest continues The Nature Conservancy's mighty efforts to preserve the very special ecosystem. According to Picone, "We've finally turned the corner, and people are starting to realize that there are economic benefits to leaving the forest standing instead of cutting it down."
Since The Nature Conservancy's founding in 1951, it has protected more than 117 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers around the world. The group has more than a million members and works in all 50 states and more than 30 countries.
Give to the Conservancy's Plant a Billion Trees campaign
www.plantabillion.org
Trees and plants are our best absorber of carbon dioxide, one of the
principal greenhouse gases (GHG), and can play a crucial role in
moderating the earth’s temperature. Deforestation and land use changes, on the other hand, are often cited to cause 20 percent of the world’s anthropogenic GHG emissions.
California's Forest Sector Protocols
In the United States, California is leading efforts to create a market-based approach for forests in mitigating climate change. The California Climate Action Registry published, and the California Air Resources Board adopted, a set of Forest Sector Protocols in October 2007.These Forest Sector Protocols detail the steps for determining the amount of carbon that can be stored in a forest and how to quantify the emissions reductions from forestry projects. Credits generated pursuant to the Protocols currently are used only in the voluntary markets, though they could be integrated into a compliance system if California adopts a cap-and-trade program under the 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act (known as AB32).
In the voluntary markets, the Protocols have already led to a transaction to preserve a section of forest in northern California that will generate 60,000 tons of marketable emissions credits.
If proven successful, California’s Forest Sector Protocols will provide a significant boost to both forestry projects and the voluntary markets, and could serve as a model for other regulatory regimes, including the EU-ETS, to embrace a market-based approach to forest protection.
SOURCE: ReutersInteractive.com
Trees are the muscles of urban landscapes. They provide a wide array of benefits to individual homes, neighborhoods, and the city at large. A wide variety of trees -- from forests at the outskirts that absorb and filter pollutants -- to flowering dogwoods and climbing trees -- all add livability to urban living.
The hard working "tree" is even more important today, with our concerns about air quality and climate change. If you have room to plant a tree -- in a yard, on suburban or rural property, or even in a container on your deck -- you have the opportunity to contribute to the restoration of our natural forest-covered earth's natural air, water and soil system that is self-healing.
Trees reduce carbon dioxide in the air, thereby reducing the warming “greenhouse” effect of the gas, in two main ways. First, as they grow, they take carbon dioxide out of the air and transform it into roots, leaves, bark, flowers, and wood. Over the lifetime of a tree, several tons of carbon dioxide are taken up (McPherson and Simpson 1999). In fact, trees are the only known feasible way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Even if we were able to switch immediately to fuel sources that do not emit carbon dioxide, the current levels in the air are higher than at any time in the past 400,000 years, according to the UN’s International Panel on Climate Change, and because of the long “lifetime” of carbon dioxide, will remain so for decades or even centuries.
Second, by providing shade and transpiring water, trees lower air temperature and, therefore, cut energy use, which reduces the production of carbon dioxide at the power plant. Two-thirds of the electricity produced in the United States is created by burning a fuel (coal, oil, or natural gas) that produces carbon dioxide–on average, for every kilowatt hour of electricity created, about 1.39 lbs of carbon dioxide is released (eGRID 2002). It is certainly true, as Dr. Duffy states, that not emitting carbon dioxide in the first place is a good strategy. Lowering summertime temperatures by planting trees in cities is one way to reduce energy use and thereby reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
SOURCE: Eco Preservation Society
PROBLEM: Urban heat contributes to climate change and air pollution
SOLUTION: Plant and care for more trees -- and keep them healthy for longterm maturity. Mature trees provide more benefits than young trees.
Reforestation is not only a “viable option”; it is our “only option”. Investing in future technologies to reduce emissions does NOTHING to remove the CO2 that we have already dumped into the atmosphere. There is only ONE viable and proven way to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and that is through the growth of trees and vegetation.
SOURCE: EcoPreservation Society
The Eco Prservation Society feels strongly to the contrary -- they find that a long-term effort at sequestering carbon is vital and that reforestation is the only means presently at our disposal.
By the study’s author’s own admission, the Lawrence Livermore study was predicated on an unrealistic scenario. The modeling was based on the single metric of replacing 100% of ALL grasslands and 100% of ALL croplands with evergreen trees! The modeling techniques did not take into account geological variations, topographical variations, altitude, regional weather patterns or microclimates. What the Lawrence Livermore study accomplishes is nothing more than a broad approximation based on a single variable, with that single variable being latitude.
However, according to Kevin Peterson, CEO of EcoPreservation, "from our view this is not an either/or proposition when comparing Emission Reductions to Carbon Sequestration, both are vitally important. It is of critical importance that we both reduce our emissions and reduce the amount of additional CO2 that we have added (and will continue to add for the next 20 or 30 years) to the atmosphere."
The earth is reaching, if it hasn't already, a tipping point in which natural systems are so damaged that it cannot replenish and restore itself. It will take action on many fronts -- reduction of carbon emissions from transportation and building, as well as reforestation, cooling urban centers...AS WELL AS replenishing our reduced forests, ocean phytoplankton...and even grass cover in deserts and plains. Every action will help speed the recovery of our natural systems. So...plant a tree, some shrubs, and remove your manicured llawn -- you can make a difference.
PROBLEM: Climate change is reducing earth's self-restoration systems
SOLUTION: Take multiple actions to reduce climate change, air pollution and water shortages by planting and caring for mature trees; as well as reducing travel that causes carbon dioxide and emissions.
