Carbon & Energy Managment

C vs CO2

C = carbon stored in vegetation and soil (Terrestrial/organic carbon)

CO2e is when we are talking about climate change

CO2 has more molecular mass (from oxygen)

1 ton C = 3.67 tons CO2e

11 ton CO2e = 3 ton C

CO2e

Carbon Dioxide equivilent

Global Warming Potential

Carbon Offset

Emission reduction outcome

Carbon sequestored (trees) , avoided (FF→RE), or destroyed

1 tonne CO2e reduced = 1 credit

Common tool to acheive net zero

Useful for hard to abate emissions

Emerged in the 1990s

many schemes (rules and certification systems)

Types of offset projects

Forestry → most common, nature based

Switching to renewables → also common

Agriculture

Carbon capture storage (technology based)

Fuel switch (petrol vs deisel)

Offset process from offset farmer perspective

1. Establish carbon project (need funding from loan or company)

2. Follow approved method (what is counted and when)

3. Monitor and third party verify

4. Carbon credits are issued

5. Transfer or sell credit (open market or agreement)

6. Emitting company retires credit

Afforestation

Establish forest where there’s no previous forest for a long time

Reforestation

Establish forest where there has been a previous forest

REDD+

Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation

Plus conservation, sustainable forest management and enhancement of carbon stocks

Protect Existing Trees

Can be difficult to quantify (requires data and modelling to compare BAU and with project scenario)

Offset Criticisms

Indulgence: Can be easier to pay for offset than change business structure (pay to pollute)

Additionality: Is it better than business as usual? →hard to quantify

Leakage

Permenance: How enduring are the savings (fires, trees not growing, climate change issues)

Indigenous rights and equity

Measurement: Are results accurate?

Leakage

Are savings being replaced a loss elsewhere?

Does preventing emissions in one place shift them somewhere else?

protect tree planting here but they hurt trees elsewhere

Vintage

What year emission reduction occured

Co-benefits

Benefits additional to the offset

Habitat, water quality

food, fibre, climate control, air and water quality, erosion protection, touring, water and nutrient cycling

Types of carbon markets

Compliance

Voluntary

Compliance carbon market

To meet legal obligations

Government makes rules

Emissions allowance traded

EU Emissiions Trading System

Voluntary carbon market

Support voluntary climate commitments

Companies choose to purchase

Uses independen crediting programs

World is mostly this

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

Annex 1 countries invest in renewable energy in non-annex 1 country

Non-annex 1 gets to develop

Annex 1 gets Certified Emissions Reductions Credit

Encourages pay to pollute

Part of Kyoto Protocol

Joint Implementation

Annex 1 country helping another annex 1 country

Fugitive Emissions and new technology

Private carbon standards

VCS

Gold Standard

American Carbon Registry

Climate Action Resources

Carbon Farming

process involved in producing a carbon offset

AKA carbon offsetting

ARR

Afforestation, Reforestation, and Restoration

Planet new trees

Carbon sequestration

Capturing atmospheric CO2 and storing its carbon

primarily in vegetation and soils

Elements of a good offset

Real → from real project activity

Measurable → using recognised methods

Permanant → endure over time

Additional → must be more than BAU scenario

Independantly verified

Unique → no double counting or reuse

Science of offsets

We dug out carbon and burned it

Turned it into a gas → expands

Carbon is now reacting to ecosystems, lifecycles, carbon cycles (bad)

We are trying to reverse this and put carbon back into non-reactive, solid state

Offsets are promises of future carbon storage

Carbon Stock

The amount of carbon in a system

Levels fluctuate in nature (dynamic) → things burn, die, grow

total carbon stored at maturity

Forest carbon

Are a massive carbon sink

Trees store carbon in wood, roots, and soil

As a tree grows it uses more carbon, but platueas/ sinoid curve

Faster growing trees store faster but not always as permenant

When it dies, the carbon either burns (into atmosphere) or is buried (into soil)

Tree can have 300-600 tons of carbon

Mountain

Significant carbon storage in soil

Formed from plate techtonics → caused ecosystem to change

Trees died → snow/ ice formed → dead trees preserved in soil (carbon)

If snow melts → carbon becomes exposed → reactive (bad)

Tundra

Primitive vegetation → lichens (moss)

Very carbon rich in permafrost

Mostly snowing and some periods of melt → plants grow and die

Creates layers of dead plants (carbon) and snow

CC is increasing the growing window → may thaw lots of carbon

Boreal Forest

Pine trees

One of biggest land carbon poils (soil + biomass)

Low biodiversity

Large biomass

Cold slows decomposition → carbon goes into system slower

Temperate Forest

High carbon storage but less permanent

High biodiversity

Rapid growth and decomposition

Highly flammable, store lots of carbon but is released

Carbon mostly in biomass

Temperate Grasslands

Few trees → low biomass

high soil carbon

Burn a lot

Grow fast and die fast

Annimals eat grass → we eat animals (carbon in lifecycle)

Savannah and Tropical Grasslands

High biodiversity

Above ground carbon is variable

Soild carbon higher

Agriculture

Carbon moves the fastests

Tropical Forests

High biodiversity

Lots of biomass (carbon) piles up on eachother and starts being stored

Biomass crushed by more biomass

Biomass decomposses less due to less oxygen reaching it

Deserts and Shrublands

Slow growing plants

Low biodiversity

Carbon is stored, but little grows to store carbon in the first place

Most carbon in soils

Blue carbon

Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems

Second largest carbon sink after atmosphere

Soil stores carbon

Carbon reacts well with salt → will stay in that env for a long time

Mangroves bring atmospheric carbon to salt

Peatlands store a lot of carbon and it doesn’t react

Credits

annual growth rate of forest

t C/ha/yr converted to CO2e

have to quantify carbon stock

Get retired by purchasing emitting company (taken out of circulation so it cannot be used again)

Protocol for Measuring Carbon in Forests

1. Set objective

2. Stratify area into classes (landcover, soil quality, rainfall)

3. Sample (randon, systematic, or clustered)

4. Estimate biomass volume (tree measurement and allometric equation

5. Convert to carbon and extrapolate (per ha)

Random sampling

1 tree, random places

Choose random areas

Accuracy depends on sample amounts

Sample 1 tree and extrapolate data on the area

Unbiased and simple

may miss variation

Strafied random sampling

1 tree, categorised places

Divide into classes (soil, land cover, rainfall)

Do a few samples in an area where you are expecting that sample

Need good photos or satelite imagery

More accurate

Cluster sampling

Radial sampling, random places

Sample groups → circles of trees

Provides more infore but you need more expertise and is harder to deal with

Good for large or hard to access areas

Stratified clusters

Radial sampling, categorised places

Areas are pre-categorised

Circle sampling

Good for big heterogeneous regions

Biomass

Mass of plant material

50% of dry biomass is carbon

Above ground (trees, grasses) + below ground

wet (includes water) and dry (oven dried)

Allometric equation

Tree biomass = b(DBH)^a

Y=bX^a

a and b are species specific constant

tree biomass is volume

How to calculate carbon from biomass (AGB)

ID species and weigh

Convert wet → biomass

Need DBH, species, and height

Below Ground Biomass

Roots and soil

Root to shoot ratio

around 30% of AGB

Soil carbon

Ancient

Most carbon in form of OM (humus not roots or microbes)

More carbon stored in soil than trees

Hard to measure → inconsistent, cant use satelite imagery

Earth observation

Global scale → satelite

Regional → landsat

Local → ground truthing

Will allow for monitoring of carbon in real time

Limitations of planting trees for offsets

Takes time and space

Expensive

Productivity varies

Companies often chose fast growing monocultures

Conflict between agricultural and forest land

A = Conservation

B = Forest Management

C = Forest Degradation

D = Deforestation

E = Afforestation/ Reforestation/ Natural Regen

F = Forest Definition

O = Total carbon stored in the forest (t C)

Triangle = Sequestration (growth rate) in particular year tC/ha (offset sellable in particular year once converted to CO2e)

How to calculate carbon from biomass

1. start with biomass volume

2. Convert wet → dry biomass (55%)

3. Convert dry biomass → carbon (50%)

4. Convert carbon → CO2e (x3.67)

FullCAM

Forest growth modelling system

Australias forest carbon calculator

can use satellite imagery