| Forests & Global Climate Change |
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| Overview |
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Forestry & Wood Products -- Carbon Storage
Uniquely Oregon! That has been Oregon’s trademark. And that trademark holds when it comes to recognizing the important role forests and wood products play in the global carbon cycle. In the early 1990’s, Oregon’s two largest electrical power providers, Portland General Electric and PacifiCorp, both looked to the forest as one means of offsetting carbon dioxide emissions (pdf) from power generation. In 1999, these early efforts spurred further investigation that led to perhaps what is still the largest operational investment in forests as a means to offset carbon dioxide emissions – the $1.5 million dollar resurrection of Oregon’s Forest Resource Trust by the Klamath Cogeneration Project. The Klamath Cogeneration Project, which produces both electricity and steam from natural gas under one of the highest standards for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, is a public-private partnership owned by the City of Klamath Falls and operated by PacifiCorp Power Marketing; a non-regulated affiliate of PacifiCorp.
But these pioneering efforts only form the beginning. With passage of House Bill 2200 by the 2001 Oregon State Legislature, Oregon can seize upon developing market opportunities for forestry carbon offsets so that any forest landowner that makes investments in healthy, productive forests can take advantage of this new commodity. House Bill 2200 recognizes that markets for forestry carbon offsets provide an incentive for forest landowners to manage for the full suite of environmental, social and economic values demanded by Oregonians. By recognizing the need to establish quality assurances for forestry carbon offsets and principals for their accounting, House Bill 2200 acts as a beacon and signals to forestry carbon offset purchasers and third-party verifiers that Oregon is preparing itself for credible business in this new sector. When actual markets develop, Oregon will be at the ready and first in line to sell its forestry ware.
Maintaining and enhancing the important role forests play in the carbon cycle is one of the seven international criteria for sustainable forestry that will be used in the Oregon Board of Forestry’s update of its strategic plan for Oregon’s forests – the 2003 Forestry Program for Oregon.
Jim Cathcart, Ph.D.
Oregon Department of Forestry
2600 State Street, Bldg D
Salem, OR 97310
503-945-7493
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| Conferences |
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- NORTH AMERICA AND THE CARBON MARKETS, WASHINGTON DC
JAN 17-18, 2007
Join policy makers and business leaders for a ground-breaking event designed to introduce North American stakeholders to lessons and opportunities in the emerging North American and global carbon markets. (Carbon Market News November 28 2006)
On-line registration, topics and more...
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| Conversion Factors |
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Conversion Factors for Carbon Dioxide Emission Offsets
2,000 pounds carbon stored = 1 short ton of carbon stored
1 short ton of carbon stored = 0.9072 metric tons of carbon stored
1,000 pounds carbon stored = 0.454 metric tons of carbon stored
1 metric ton of carbon stored = 3.67 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission equivalent
1 metric ton of carbon stored = 1.102 short tons of carbon stored
1 metric ton of carbon stored = (3.67)*(1.102) = 4.044 short tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission equivalent
1 hectare = 2.4711 acres
Is it metric ton or metric tonne? Most folk are going with metric ton. Whether metric ton or tonne – same thing (but always check ……).
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| Informational Links |
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News Articles
Websites & Publications
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- Carbon Inventory Tools - A toolbox full of basic calculation tools to help quantify forest carbon for planning or reporting. Tools developed by the USDA Forest Service Northern Research Station.
- Carbon On-Line Estimator (COLE) - A convenient way to customize the forest carbon yield tables developed for the Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases under Section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992. Developed by the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement and the USDA Forest Service.
- Carbon Trading Primer - A Primer for Forest Landowners -- National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry and the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources.
- Carbon Sequestration - A Working Example in Oregon (pdf)
An article by James F. Cathcart, Ph.D. reprinted with permission from the
Journal of Forestry (vol.98, no.9, pp. 32-37) published by the Society of American Foresters.
- Carbon Sequestration Workshop - Africa
This site found courtesy of H. Gyde Lund´s Forest Information Update, 2/3/03.
- The CarbonFix Standard - A new international practical standard for the carbon accounting of forestation projects to facilitate forest projects in the voluntary market for carbon offsets. CarbonFix e. V., Stuttgart, Germany
- CarbonTracker - website found courtesy of CLIM-FO-L (An Electronic Journal on Climate Change and Forestry), No. 3 (2007)
CarbonTracker: A system to keep track of carbon dioxide uptake and release at the Earth's surface over time CarbonTracker is designed for policy makers, industry, scientists, and the public need CarbonTracker information to make informed decisions to limit greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. The website gives information on a system that calculates carbon dioxide uptake and release at the Earth's surface over time. It estimates the carbon dioxide exchange from an 'atmospheric point of view.'
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Chicago Climate Exchange,® Inc. (CCX®) is a self-regulatory exchange that administers the world´s first multi-national and multi-sector marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions.
- COMET-VR - The Voluntary Reporting of Greenhouse Gases-CarbOn Management Evaluation T ool (COMET-VR ) tool is a decision support tool for agricultural producers, land managers, soil scientists and other agricultural interests. Developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resource Conservation Service.
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Forest Service Creates Climate Change Research and Development Website
Website source courtesy of Society of American Foresters, May 14, 2007 "E-Forester"
From the website: As a land management agency, the USDA Forest Service has a unique responsibility to address questions about climate change mitigation and adaptation involving the many issues that challenge forest and rangeland owners, managers, and users. The agency's research and development focuses on questions about climate change impacts, such as the adaptation actions needed to increase resilience of forests and ranges to the effects of climate change; the potential of forests to mitigate atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration changes by storing additional carbon in living vegetation and forest products; and reducing fossil carbon use by increasing production of biofuels and substituting forest products for more greenhouse gas-intensive materials." To learn more, visit the Forest Service website.
- Global Warming Impacts to Oregon (pdf)
 A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency website.
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The Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium ("GEMCo") is a not-for-profit Canadian corporation formed by companies that wish to demonstrate industry leadership in developing voluntary and market-based approaches to greenhouse gas emissions management. Members include: ATCO Electric, BC Gas, BC Hydro, Enbridge Consumers Gas and Pipelines, EPCOR Utilities Inc., Nova Scotia Power, Ontario Power Generation Inc., SaskPower, TransAlta Corporation, TransCanada Pipelines Ltd
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- Trexler Climate + Energy Services, Inc. (TC+ES)
- Turn that Field or Brush Patch into a Forest (pdf)
Article by James F. Cathcart, Ph.D. appearing in Northwest Woodlands
Summer 2002, Volume 18, No 3
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The proposed revised General Guidelines for the voluntary reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and emission reductions under section 1605(b) of the Energy Policy Act were issued on November 26, 2003.
A workshop on the proposed revised General Guidelines was scheduled on Monday, Jan 12, 2004, Washington Plaza Hotel, 10 Thomas Circle, N.W., Massachusetts Avenue at 14th Street, Washington, DC 20005, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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