Green Carbon Report
Green Carbon Report
Here is the first volume of the report, published last year.
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The second volume was recently released in June 2009:
Preserving old-growth forests is vital to saving the planet
* Gavan McFadzean
* June 22, 2009
SO WHERE are the world’s most carbon-rich forests? Not the tropical rainforests of the Amazon, Borneo or Africa’s Congo Basin, according to research by the Australian National University. They are the tall, old-growth mountain ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands - a 90-minute drive east of Melbourne.
The researchers studied 132 forests from around the world to discover the regions that stored the most carbon. Their findings, published in the US-based Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the world’s most-cited scientific serials, is a surprise because conventional wisdom says that tropical forests store the most carbon.
So why our forests? The conditions are perfect. These forests occur at a confluence of environmental conditions that lead to high rates of plant growth and, because they are cooler, decay rates are slower. In short they grow fast but decay slowly. And they are very old - at least 350 years, growing dense heavy wood. That’s important because the amount of carbon stored is due to volume and density. Also, these trees have not been subjected to logging.
The problem is, these very same forest types are being intensively logged for woodchips, mostly bound for Japan. These trees are not only the best at producing carbon; unfortunately for them, they are also some of the best for producing high-quality paper. To add insult to injury, several of Melbourne’s water catchments are among those logged.
ANU science shows that for as long as these forests are logged, their carbon-carrying capacity is reduced by up to 60 per cent, not to mention the emissions from logging and post-logging regeneration burns. If we stopped logging all the forests of south-eastern Australia, and we now have enough wood in plantations to do that, we would avoid emissions equal to 24 per cent of the 2005 Australian net greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors.
Ironically, the plantation-based timber industry is under great economic stress, with several major wood plantation growers in receivership. This is the right time for Premier John Brumby to develop an integrated industry rescue and climate package, which creates green jobs in the plantation sector and focuses management of our native forests on emissions reduction.
Another reason why these forests are so carbon dense is because they evolved with fire.
Yes, the Black Saturday fires did pass through some of these forests, but most of the carbon remains in the forest. This is because it is in big old trees and dead trunks, and in the soil. Therefore, the proportion of total carbon lost in the fire is surprisingly small compared with logging. Also, many trees survive fire in less intensely burnt patches, facilitating regeneration. But logging these forests makes them more vulnerable to fire because it fragments and dries out the landscape, replacing fire-resistant tall forests and a wet rainforest understorey with young eucalypts and a much drier understorey.
This research (combined with research released by ANU last year) demonstrates how important it is for the Federal Government to assess how much carbon could be stored in Australia’s native forests, how much greenhouse gas could be prevented from entering the atmosphere if we protect them from logging, and what their long-term ability to keep on pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere actually is.
It also suggests that there is a serious new option to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.
The Federal Government has made provision for complementary measures to be developed to supplement the carbon pollution reduction scheme. Clearly there is scope to develop a package to reduce emissions and protect and restore the carbon stored in our native forests. Such a package could prevent millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide being released.
We need to start recognising the value of these forests to climate change mitigation. The Government should provide incentives so that state governments and private land owners are rewarded for protecting and restoring the carbon stocks found in natural forests under their control.
Everyone is concerned with emissions from logging and tree clearing in developing countries, but the Government needs to ensure that the Copenhagen agreement also provides policies that give incentives to protect and restore carbon stocks in developed nations.
We knew these forests should be protected because they are our water catchments and habitat for endangered species such as the Leadbeater’s Possum, Victoria’s faunal emblem. Now it turns out they are the world’s largest carbon banks and their protection should be a critical part of any response to climate change by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Premier John Brumby.
Will the public interest finally take precedence over that of the woodchippers? Surely these forests have put an irrefutable case for their protection.
Gavan McFadzean is the Wilderness Society Victorian campaigns manager.
The Australian, September 04, 2008
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24290893-11949,00.html
KEVIN Rudd will be asked to dramatically lift Australia’s reserves of natural forests and grasslands as part of its climate change solution in a bid to ease emissions cuts on industry as part of the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The Prime Minister’s climate change adviser, Ross Garnaut, yesterday urged Australia to lift its focus on retaining natural forests and grasslands in northern Australia as part of its climate change response.
The Australian understands the concept of boosting biosequestration has the support of senior government figures, particularly given its potential to reduce the impact on industry of the Government’s carbon reduction measures.
Professor Garnaut said Australia was uniquely placed to use biosequestration to soak up carbon emissions, with its northern savannahs likely to continue to receive good rainfall despite the effects of climate change.
His comments to the International Conference on Climate Change and Food Security Issues in Canberra yesterday will refocus debate from reducing emissions from polluting industries towards soaking up greenhouse gases through forestry and native vegetation.
In Canberra tomorrow, Professor Garnaut will release a key report on the targets and trajectories for carbon emission reductions that the nation must achieve to alleviate climate change. The focus on natural sequestration techniques could reduce the impact of the new emissions trading regime.
“We are, of the OECD countries, probably the country in the world with the largest area of woodlands and forest per capita and this vast area is going to provide very large potential for biosequestration of many kinds,” Professor Garnaut said.
“That will leave opportunity for intensification for growth of biomass in northern Australia.”
Opposition Treasury spokesman Malcolm Turnbull, who was environment minister in the Howard government, said there was massive potential for biosequestration.
“One of the reasons we promoted the carbon-sink-forest tax deductibility was because there are vast areas of Australia where there’s the opportunity to reforest areas, often with trees that have virtually no value from a timber point of view such as mallee, (but) are very effective in storing carbon,” Mr Turnbull said last night.
“It isn’t unrealistic and it doesn’t involve new or revolutionary technology.
“And for those people that are anxious about climate science, it is an absolutely no-regret policy because nobody could argue that there aren’t numerous environmental benefits in stopping the deforestation of the world’s rainforests.”
Mr Turnbull said biosequestration was the reason the previous government proposed financial support for Indonesia to stamp out illegal logging and preserve its forests.
The Rudd Government had “taken up our idea, changed the name and presented it as their own idea”, Mr Turnbull said.
An Australian National University study released last month highlighted the role of untouched forests in combating climate change. Untouched natural forests could carry three times more carbon than previously thought, the report found.
Professor Garnaut’s move to shift the climate debate towards biosequestration came as big business appealed to Brendan Nelson to moderate his hardline opposition to the Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, warning that the stance was hurting companies craving political certainty as they pondered major investment decisions.
The Business Council of Australia yesterday described political bipartisanship as vital if the nation was to craft a workable trading system in response to climate change while preserving an environment of investment certainty. The BCA said the Opposition’s position on the ETS was not contributing to investment certainty.
Dr Nelson has struggled in recent months to craft a clear policy on the ETS, insisting Australia should not commit to action to reduce its emissions unless major emitters such as the US and China have also agreed to take action.
Calling for a smooth transition to a lower-emissions future, BCA chief executive Katie Lahey told The Australian yesterday that while the BCA had its arguments with the detail of the Rudd ETS proposals, it wanted bipartisan support for the concept of swift action on climate change.
“This is because business needs certainty, in particular in relation to anything that may impact on long-term investment decisions,” Ms Lahey said.
“The BCA believes on an issue of such transformational importance to the economy as emission trading, that bipartisanship is critical to ensure the most workable scheme is adopted.”
Wayne Swan seized on the BCA appeal as evidence that the Opposition had lost its way on acting to support the nation’s economic wellbeing.
“We’ve already had a decade of denial and inaction on climate change from the Liberals and now they seem determined to deny Australian business the certainty it needs to invest in the low-emissions economy of the future,” the Treasurer said.
Professor Garnaut said better management of agricultural and forestry assets could be “genuinely transformative” in Australia’s greenhouse gas mitigation efforts, and the global response.
He said Australia’s large tracts of unproductive pastoral country also had great “potential value”.
Professor Garnaut also called for the creation of a specialist institute of climate change science to fill the large gaps in the nation’s scientific response to global warming.
While Australia had a great capacity for adaptation, it was not great enough for the job at hand.
The task had been made all the harder by decisions by governments worldwide to run down scientific expertise in food production, he said.