Overcoming the risk of inaction from emissions uncertainty in smallholder agriculture

The potential for improving productivity and increasing the resilience of smallholder agriculture, while also contributing to climate change mitigation, has recently received considerable political attention (Beddington et al 2012). Financial support for improving smallholder agriculture could come from performance-based funding including sale of carbon credits or certified commodities, payments for ecosystem services, and nationally appropriate mitigation action (NAMA) budgets, as well as more traditional sources of development and environment finance. Monitoring the greenhouse gas fluxes associated with changes to agricultural practice is needed for performance-based mitigation funding, and efforts are underway to develop tools to quantify mitigation achieved and assess trade-offs and synergies between mitigation and other livelihood and environmental priorities (Olander 2012)

Transposing lessons between different forms of consequential greenhouse gas accounting: lessons for consequential life cycle assessment, project-level accounting, and policy-level accounting

AbstractGreenhouse gas accounting has developed in a number of semi-isolated fields of practice and there appears to be considerable opportunity for transposing methodological innovations and lessons between these different fields. This research paper identifies three consequential forms of greenhouse gas accounting: consequential life cycle assessment; project-level accounting; and policy-level accounting. These methods are described in detail and then compared in order to identify the key methodological differences and the potential lessons that can be transposed between them. Analysis of the substantive methodological differences suggests that consequential life cycle assessment could be enhanced by adopting the same structure used in project and policy-level accounting, which provides a time-series of impacts, aggregate level analysis, and a transparent specification of the baseline and decision scenarios. There is a case for conceptualising a unified form of consequential time-series assessment, of which project, policy and product assessments would be sub-types

Evaluating the terrestrial carbon dioxide removal potential of improved forest management and accelerated forest conversion in Norway

As a carbon dioxide removal measure, the Norwegian government is currently considering a policy of large-scale planting of spruce (Picea abies (L) H. Karst) on lands in various states of natural transition to a forest dominated by deciduous broadleaved tree species. Given the aspiration to bring emissions on balance with removals in the latter half of the 21st century in effort to limit the global mean temperature rise to “well below” 2°C, the effectiveness of such a policy is unclear given relatively low spruce growth rates in the region. Further convoluting the picture is the magnitude and relevance of surface albedo changes linked to such projects, which typically counteract the benefits of an enhanced forest CO2 sink in high-latitude regions. Here, we carry out a rigorous empirically based assessment of the terrestrial carbon dioxide removal (tCDR) potential of large-scale spruce planting in Norway, taking into account transient developments in both terrestrial carbon sinks and surface albedo over the 21st century and beyond. We find that surface albedo changes would likely play a negligible role in counteracting tCDR, yet given low forest growth rates in the region, notable tCDR benefits from such projects would not be realized until the second half of the 21st century, with maximum benefits occurring even later around 2150. We estimate Norway's total accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 and 2150 (including surface albedo changes) to be 447 (±240) and 852 (±295) Mt CO2-eq. at mean net present values of US$12 (±3) and US$ 13 (±2) per ton CDR, respectively. For perspective, the accumulated tCDR potential at 2100 represents around 8 years of Norway's total current annual production-based (i.e., territorial) CO2-eq. emissions.publishedVersio

Conservation of blue carbon ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation

Emission of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), has been the main cause of climate change and global warming since the mid-20th century. Blue carbon (BC) ecosystems, which include tidal marshes, mangroves, and seagrass meadows, play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Despite occupying only 0.2% of the ocean surface, they contribute 50% of carbon burial in marine sediments, equivalent to the sequestration of 1%-2% of current global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Conversely, damage to these ecosystems risks the release of that carbon back to the atmosphere. Conserving and restoring BC ecosystems not only maintains CO2 sequestration capacity but also services essential for climate change adaptation along coasts, including prevention of shoreline erosion. However, BC ecosystems rank among the most threatened ecosystems on earth. Urgent action is needed to prevent further degradation, to avoid additional greenhouse emissions, as well as restoring degraded habitats to recover their climate change mitigation potential