Fifth Carbon Pro
Newsletter.
Contents
The Bali road map
The UN Conference on climate change, which took place in Bali on
December 3rd-15th, has gathered 180 countries and set an agreement
after days of wrangling. Amid extraordinary emotional scenes, which
at one point saw the American delegation booed, all the world’s
nations, apart from Burma, have agreed to sign up to a deal which
sets out a roadmap for two years of negotiation, culminating in a
new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, due to be agreed in
Copenhagen in December 2009.
No firm targets or commitments have been set, although the EU
ministers firmly backed the target of GHG emissions reduction of
25-40% by 2020. Instead the agreement is effectively a timetable and
agenda for a new, binding climate accord.
The outstanding result
is that for the first time industrialised and developing countries,
including the US, China and India have jointly agreed, however
vaguely, to act together to control their emissions.
The
resulting “Bali roadmap” is a global warming pact
that starts a two year process of negotiations designed to agree a
new set of emissions targets to replace those in the Kyoto
Protocol.
Delegates rise to applaud the decision to adopt
the "Bali roadmap" for a future international
agreement on
climate change
But the Bali agreement has meant to be an even more important
step toward the engagement of developing countries in tackling
climate change and the commitment of industrialised countries toward
them.
The agenda set out in Bali includes a comprehensive plan for
curbing global warming and adapting its impacts. This will
include:
- Emissions targets for industrialised
countries, possibly but not necessarily binding. Although
the final text does not mention specific emission targets, it
envisages “deep cuts in global emissions”.
- A form of compensation for developing countries for
avoided deforestation and for protecting their forests.
Deforestation is blamed for one fifth of the world’s rising carbon
dioxide. Delegates agreed on a framework that could allow richer
nations and companies to earn “carbon credits” by paying for
forest protection in developing countries.
- The establishment of an adaptation fund which
will help developing countries to adapt to climate change impacts.
The fund, under the Authority of the Conference of the Parties, is
unique and will be generated through a 2% levy on transactions
between companies under one of the KP mechanisms, the Clean
Development Mechanism. The outcome represents a major victory for
the countries that have least contributed to climate change but
will suffer most from its impacts.
- Transfer of clean and low carbon technologies to
developing countries. The action will implement specific
innovative instruments for financing clean technologies and
promoting research and development in developing countries.
Although originally the CDM aimed at exporting clean technologies,
so far it has mainly resulted in finding the cheapest way to
reduce carbon emissions and in low technology transfer.
In conclusions, although green groups and scientists warned that
the agreement was technically weak and did not commit countries to
the ambitious cuts required, politically the Bali road map has shown
to be successful, engaging all the countries, including the most
reluctant to climate change actions like the US.
It is a first
step toward a deal in Copenhagen to address the challenge of climate
change.
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Carbon Pro Transnational Action
Plan
Transnational Action Plan for the management of agricultural
and forest resources toward the increase of carbon stocking
The objective of Carbon Pro project is to develop a range of
instruments to facilitate the implementation of Kyoto Protocol
strategies at a local level. Although local environmental policies
have not been included in the Protocol, the development of
management practices aimed at increasing carbon stock could bring
about positive environmental results.
In the context of a lack of
international guidelines on the application of the Protocol at a
local level, the aim of Carbon Pro project has been to lay out some
mechanisms that will assist local policy makers and planners during
the application of the Protocol.
Therefore the results of the
Project will facilitate them to take into account and integrate in
their planning choices carbon stock oriented strategies,
particularly those related to the management of forest and
agricultural systems.
carbon
stock and carbon sequestration carried out by forest and
agricultural systems in the field and in products are paramount to
meet Kyoto Protocol targets to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions
The “Transactional Action Plan (TAP)” has been carried out by a
team of Carbon Pro partners with the aim to provide guidelines as
well as to make data and information collected during the project
lifetime available to local users.
In addition to that the
objective of the TAP is also to provide to the reader an overall and
brief insight into the Kyoto Protocol meaning and into the
strategies that can be adopted at a local level in order to promote
actions aimed at CO2 emissions reduction through carbon stock
oriented practices.
In particular the document is organised in
the following four sections:
- An introduction, where the global carbon cycle is shortly
described as well as the ecological mechanisms that connect the
reduction of CO2 emissions and the mitigation of greenhouse gas
effect to forest and agricultural areas management
- A brief description of the Kyoto Protocol and of the steps
made by the Annex I Parties toward the final commitment agreement
- A Multiple Entry Table which shows the effects of different
forest and agricultural systems management strategies with regards
to CO2 uptake and other related effects. In addition to that
general instructions on how to interpret the Table are provided
- The conclusions where the socio-economic effects determined by
the adoption of specific rural areas management strategies are
illustrated.
You can download all the document here.
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Carbon Pro final
meeting
On 14th December was held in Udine castle the final meeting of
Carbon Pro partnership.
During the meeting, hosted by the lead
partner Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Austrian partner presented the
work of Joanneum Research about the spatial analysis from remote
sensing data and the lead partner showed the effectiveness of the
project results.
The partners discussed also about a possible
follow-up of the project, that could start in 2008, in order to
continue the project activities with the same partnership.
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A study on forest road quality
and its relationship with GHG emissions
During Carbon Pro project some specific studies were carried on
by the partners. One of them was carried out by Friuli Venezia
Giulia Region (G. Vanone, G. De Antoni, P. Gridel, M. Zuliani, G.
Alberti) investigated about the forest road system and its influence
in forest management and carbon balance.
Below are reported some
considerations and the conclusions of the study.
Suitable forest handling techniques and the presence of a
qualitatively and quantitatively appropriate forest road system can
influence the quantity of wood output, improve the handling of the
wood on the long term, start up the exploitation of parts of woody
by-products, usually abandoned in the forest before complex wood
clearing is carried out, as well as prevent fires.
In certain
kinds of forests, moreover, the presence of a good road system can
make economically sustainable timber collection for producing
biomasses to be employed as energy favouring a reduction in fossil
fuel use.
In terms of full carbon accounting road system quality
has direct effects on the quantities of fossil fuel used by
transports per product unit obtained. The purpose of the study is to
quantify, through a simulation model, some possible modifications to
carbon dynamics brought by a qualitative and quantitative change to
the forest road system.
3
different road scenarios were analysed: existing road system,
improved road system and missing road system
The study and the simulation of the different scenarios, carried
out through the elaboration of available data, provides a crystal
clear signal regarding the alterations to the carbon balance due to
quantitative and qualitative improvement in road infrastructures.
Comparing the various scenarios, it has been noticed that, given an
increase in the biomasses taken from woodland, thanks to the
improvement of the efficiency in woodland clearing operations and to
the differing use of the arrangements, the carbon balance or, more
precisely, the greenhouse effect gas balance remains substantially
unaltered, though the biomass “stored” in the forest diminishes
considerably.
The attainment of such a balance is to be imputed
to a more intense use of the woody biomass as a substitute of fossil
fuels (fossil fuel displacement) and to the ensuing decrease in the
imbalance of greenhouse gas.
A more intense use of biomasses and
an enhanced efficiency in woodland clearing operations might have
positive fall-outs on the income of individual owners (reduction in
clearing costs, increase in the worth of the arrangements) boosting
the value of the bush. Moreover it might favour the development of a
local market of biomasses for energy purposes, by keeping the
greenhouse gas balance unchanged.
The complete article will be published within the Carbon Pro
Final Publication that will be edited in January 2008.
For more
information: giuseppe.vanone@regione.fvg.it
.
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EU cap on airlines emissions from
2012
EU ministers have agreed to impose carbon emissions quotas on
airlines in an attempt to fight climate change.
The Environment
Commissioner, Stavros Dimas, said a strong signal had to be sent,
although members of European Parliament had wanted carriers to be
included in the EU emissions trading scheme in 2011, not 2012.
The United States opposes the idea and has threatened legal
action and the airline industry fears the cost of the carbon trading
scheme could force some carriers out of business.
Stavros Dimas says aircraft emissions could double by
2020
But Mr Dimas, said that aviation was responsible for 3% of carbon
emissions, more than the steel industry which was already part of
the trading scheme. This is a bold step by Europe in the week after
the Bali agreement. He said aviation emissions had doubled since
1990 and were predicted to double again by 2020.
Under the trading system, the EU limits the amount of carbon
dioxide that industry is allowed to emit. The airlines would have to
meet their quotas, either by cutting their emissions or by buying
credits from other industries.
Environment ministers meeting in Brussels agreed that airlines
would have to buy 10% of permits upfront at auction in 2012,
substantially lower than the proportion suggested by the European
Parliament. They also set the cap on emissions at the average level
from 2004-2006.
The deal will now have to be negotiated with the
European Parliament.
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