FEATURED NEWS www.wvfa.org Spring 24 | West Virginia Forestry Association Mountain State Forestry 9 A metric tonne of CO2e is the most common carbon unit bought and sold in the carbon market. This market has developed to allow buyers to compensate (‘offset’) their greenhouse gas emissions with ‘carbon credits’. A carbon credit represents reductions in atmospheric carbon levels, either from reducing carbon emissions to the atmosphere (e.g. building a windmill to produce electricity instead of burning coal), or by removing carbon (dioxide gas) that is already in the atmosphere (e.g. growing trees in a forest). The carbon market includes buyers who are required by law to reduce their net carbon emissions (the ‘compliance market’) and those who purchase credits by choice (the ‘voluntary market’). The specifics of the types, measurements, and value of carbon market products vary greatly around the world, but forest-related carbon programs are among the largest by volume and most important by monetary value sources of the carbon credits that are sold in the voluntary carbon market (Figure 3). There are many forest carbon programs, with many variations, and currently, no binding universal standards for these programs. However, these programs often involve payments to forest landowners to apply ‘improved forest management’ practices that result in greater carbon storage in the forest. The specifics vary by the program but usually include reduced or delayed harvesting of trees. This makes sense because harvest reduces the carbon stored in forests because wood is removed from the site, and because the harvest disturbance increases decomposition of the ‘slash’ (treetops and branches) and other plant materials that have accumulated. What About Wood Carbon? Wood products have multiple carbon impacts. As mentioned, tree harvest reduces forest carbon storage levels, at least for a time. But wood products also store carbon—both in use (your wooden kitchen table is ½ carbon by weight) and after disposal (much of the wood in a landfill doesn’t rot). This carbon storage in wood products is less than what is lost at harvest but can remain stored for a very long time. For example, in U.S. government reporting of forest carbon storage, wood products of various types are assigned specific half-lives (a few years for paper, decades for building materials) but then, once disposed of in landfills, much of the carbon in products is assumed to be stored forever. In the U.S., this adds up to a lot of wood product carbon storage (84 TgCO2e; Figure 2). Wood products also provide useful alternatives to other materials, and this has carbon implications. Non-wood materials usually require more energy inputs, and this energy is mostly sourced from fossil fuels. The use (burning/combustion) of these fossil fuels releases additional carbon dioxide gas to the atmosphere—i.e. the opposite of carbon storage. Thus, using wood products instead of alternative materials results in a carbon substitution effect because using wood avoids some fossil carbon emissions. The various carbon pools associated with a forest area are illustrated in combination in Figure 4, which represents a general forest area beginning after a clear-cut and growing through two subsequent harvests. The biogenic carbon stored in the soil (grey) is stable over time, but harvest of the trees (green) greatly reduces the carbon stock in the forest. This ‘trees’ carbon stock rebounds as the trees grow back, while the extra litter (yellow) that is introduced at harvest decomposes. This picture also accounts for the biogenic carbon stored in harvested wood products (pink). A portion of these products degrades over time, releasing biogenic carbon back to the atmosphere (by burning or rotting) but some of the product remains as a stable carbon store 1 The ‘equivalence’ of this CO 2e accounts for the fact that other greenhouse gases (e.g. methane) have different impacts. Figure 4. Carbon storage and substitution pools for an area of forest land over time. Carbon storage in the forest and wood products rises and falls between harvests; avoided emissions of fossil carbon (substitution effects) increase (Adapted from McKinley et al. 2011). Figure 3. Forest-related carbon is a big and growing business. From Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace (2023). 2021 2022 CATEGORY VOLUME (MICO2e) VALUE (USD) PRICE (USD) VOLUME (MICO2e) VALUE (USD) PRICE (USD) FORESTRY & LAND USE 242,339,151 $1,404,461,426 $5.78 113,253,651 $1,148,848,783 $10.14 RENEWABLE ENERGY 214,508,581 $463,950,451 $2.16 92,477,042 $386,054,729 $4.16 CHEMICAL PROCESSING & INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING 17,253,275 $53,877,016 $3.12 13,338,781 $68,531,895 $5.14 HOUSEHOLD/ COMMUNITY DEVICES 8,687,821 $46,606,814 $5.36 9,070,331 $77,590,244 $8.55 ENERGY EFFICIENCY / FUEL SWITCHING 10,936,656 $23,583,132 $2.16 6,601,354 $35,577,952 $5.39 WASTE DISPOSAL 11,647,530 $42,292,142 $3.63 6,207,615 $44,870,139 $7.23 AGRICULTURE 987,026 $9,525,119 $9.65 3,783,393 $41,700,362 $11.02 TRANSPORTATION 5,405,466 $6,257,391 $1.16 176,338 $770,485 $4.37
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