Nurturing forests, peatlands will attack global warming: UNEP

Yahoo News 5 Jun 09;

PARIS (AFP) – Fixing deforestation, preserving peatlands and ending reckless agricultural methods could be a major weapon in tackling climate change, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Friday.

Biological systems, if responsibly managed, can absorb billions of tonnes of the dangerous carbon gases that fuel the greenhouse effect, the agency said in a report coinciding with World Environment Day.

Trees and plants suck in carbon dioxide (CO2), the principal greenhouse gas, through photosynthesis.

But this natural "sponge" is being damaged by deforestation and agricultural use, which releases the stored carbon to the air.

Around 20 percent of annual greenhouse-gas emissions are imputable to logging, farming and burning of peatlands, according to scientists.

UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said major countries had earmarked tens of billions of dollars in investments in carbon capture and storage technology, by which CO2 is siphoned off at power stations and then pumped underground or under the sea.

"But perhaps the international community is overlooking a tried-and-tested method that has been working for millennia -- the biosphere," he said.

"By some estimates, the Earth's living systems might be capable of sequestering more than 50 gigatonnes [50 billion tonnes] of carbon over the coming decades with the right market signals."

The report touched on areas that are up for debate in talks to craft a new global pact on climate change. The accord, scheduled to be sealed in Copenhagen in December, will be take effect from the end of 2012.

Separately, a study published in a science journal said the future pact, by incorporating an innovative mechanism, could deal a blow to tropical deforestation while also preserve precious biodiversity.

The paper looked at the scenarios by which this proposed mechanism, called Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD), could work.

Under REDD, countries that conserve their tropical forests and tackle deforestation would earn credits for reduced emissions. These credits would be sold on an international carbon market, or compensated through an international fund.

But REDD is making slow progress in the UN talks, amid worries about its cost and how it would work in practice.

The paper, published in the journal Conservation Letters, looked at how REDD could apply in the case of 3.3 million hectares (8.25 million acres) of forest in Indonesia's Borneo that is threatened by planned palmoil plantations.

If CO2 credits could be sold for 10-33 US dollars per tonne, it would be profitable to keep the forest rather than clear it for oil palm, according to the study, lead-authored by Oscar Venter, a biologist at the University of Queensland in Australia.

Conserving the forest at the same time would prevent 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon from entering the atmosphere and also preserve the habitat of orangutans, pygmy elephants and other threatened species.

"Payments made to reduce carbon emissions from forests could also be an efficient and effective way to protect biodiversity," said Venter.

Invest in trees and soil, not just cleaner coal: U.N.
Gerard Wynn, Reuters 4 Jun 09;

LONDON (Reuters) - Chopping down fewer trees and caring for the soil may be cheaper and more effective in fighting climate change than curbing emissions from coal plants, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Friday.

Many energy companies and analysts say the world should invest in technology which traps carbon emissions from the flue gas of coal plants and then buries it underground.

But the technology is untested. And according to a UNEP report, there are better natural ways to store carbon.

Trees store the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) as they grow, while soil traps carbon in the organic matter of roots and tiny organisms underground.

"Tens of billions of dollars are being earmarked for carbon capture and storage at power stations, with the CO2 to be buried underground or under the sea," said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, in the report "The Natural Fix? The Role of Ecosystems in Climate Mitigation."

"The Earth's living systems might be capable of sequestering more than 50 gigatonnes (billion tonnes) of carbon over the coming decades with the right market signals," he added.

The world pumped into the atmosphere 8.5 billion tonnes of carbon from burning fossil fuels in 2007.

Global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing at about 3 percent a year and must start falling within a decade to avoid the worst effects of climate change, scientists say. Recession will only slow annual increases temporarily, say analysts.

Soils store more carbon when animal grazing rates are cut and crops grown less intensively -- measures which cost about $5-10 per tonne of avoided CO2 emissions, the report found.

That compares with the cost of trapping greenhouse gases from coal plants of $20-270 per tonne of CO2.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) works by trapping CO2 from the exhaust gases of fossil fuel power plants and then piping it to underground storage sites, such as disused oil wells. The European Union says it wants 10 to 12 commercial-scale CCS plants by 2015. Analysts say the extra cost is about $1 billion per power plant. Countries joining the technology race include the United States, China, Canada and Australia.

The cost of storing carbon in forests and farms increases the more that is needed, however, because that means competing with profitable alternatives such as intensive food production.

That can cause also cause social problems, for example where planting trees comes at the expense of land used for traditional grazing -- "Sometimes ... the land may be of great importance for local people as rangeland or pasture for livestock, or as a source of wild food or other resources," the report said.

(Reporting by Gerard Wynn; editing by Andrew Roche)