Mitigation Co-benefits of Ecosystem-Based Adaptation Measures: Learnings from Catalyzing Ecosystem Restoration for Climate-Resilient Natural Capital and Rural Livelihoods in Degraded Forests and Rangelands of Nepal

Carbon Sequestration in Soils of Latin America

Cities play a critical role in anthropogenic CO2 emissions, which exacerbate climate change and impact urban populations. Urban green infrastructure, such as urban trees, provides essential ecosystem services, including reducing atmospheric CO2 levels. However, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the impact of urban trees on climate change in semiarid, polluted cities like Tehran, the capital and largest metropolis of the Middle East. This study assesses the carbon sequestration and storage potential of Tehran’s urban infrastructure using the i-Tree Eco model. A randomized cluster sampling method was employed, collecting data on species composition, diameter at breast height (DBH), and total tree height. The results indicate that Tehran’s urban trees sequester approximately 60,102 tons of carbon per year, equivalent to 220,393 tons of CO2. The net carbon storage in urban trees is about 254,579 tons, equivalent to 933,455 tons of CO2. Parks and urban green spaces demonstrate the highest rate of carbon sequestration per hectare, followed by urban services land use. Prioritizing the planting of species with high sequestration rates like Cupressus arizonica (Arizona cypress) and Cupressus sempervirens L. var. horizontalis (Mediterranean cypress) could enhance carbon sequestration efforts in Tehran. These data provide valuable insights into the carbon sequestration potential and environmental impact of different land use types, and may aid in the development of effective environmental policies and land management strategies in semiarid urban areas and other cities in similar settings.

Co-pyrolysis of peanut shell with phosphate fertilizer to improve carbon sequestration and emission reduction potential of biochar

Aeolian sandy soil is barren and readily leads to low fertilizer utilization rates and yields. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the water and fertilizer retention capacity of these soils. In this paper, three kinds of biochar (rice husk, corn stalk, and bamboo charcoal) and bentonite were used as amendments in the first year of the experiment. In the second year, only corn stalk biochar was applied. The effects of biochar and bentonite on the physicochemical and biological characteristics of aeolian sandy soil and corn agronomic traits were studied through a 2-year field experiment, and the carbon sequestration and emission reduction potential of biochar in aeolian sandy soil were explored. The results showed that the input of biochar and bentonite effectively improved water content and reduced soil bulk density. Compared with the same treatment in the first year, the content of water-stable aggregates with particle sizes greater than 0.25 mm, mean weight diameter and geometric mean diameter of the corn stalk biochar mixed with bentonite treatment significantly increased in the second year. Biochar and bentonite significantly increased the soil organic matter content, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and available nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents, and CEC increased by 150.4%. Soil available phosphorus increased 2.6 times compared with that of the fertilizer treatment. Soil alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen content increased by 211.5%, respectively. The plant height, leaf area index and ground dry matter mass also increased significantly, and the corn yield increased by 36.6% in response to the mixed application of 1.9 t/hm2 corn stalk biochar and 12 t/hm2 bentonite. The contents of urease, sucrase and catalase increased first and then decreased with crop growth through the jointing, silking and maturity stages. The microbial carbon content increased 2.4 times in the second year when corn stalk biochar was applied compared with that in the first year. The carbon sequestration potential of biochar application was equivalent to offsetting CO2 emissions by approximately 100 million tons per year of the study.

Since my column in the September 2022 JPT about the regulation of ownership and leasing of pore space, dealmaking has picked up steam, especially by Oxy. Many of the announced deals by Oxy and others are in Texas and in the Gulf Coast region. Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV) signed an agreement in October with Natural Resource Partners LP for the evaluation of a potential CO2 sequestration hub in Texas. OLCV, a subsidiary of Occidental, would gain rights to about 65,000 acres of pore space for its development, with the potential to store a minimum of 500 million metric tons of CO2. The proposed site is in proximity to industrial greenhouse-gas emitters and a prime location for Oxy’s 1PointFive’s plans to build a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) hub, possibly connected to direct air capture (DAC) facilities. Also, in October, Occidental and 1PointFive signed a lease agreement with King Ranch, a privately held agricultural production and resource management company, to support large-scale DAC projects on 106,000 acres in Kleberg County, Texas, with the potential to remove up to 30 million metric tons of CO2 per year. The pores space is estimated to store up to 3 billion metric tons of CO2. In addition to DAC emissions capture, the King Ranch acreage is located near industrial emitters in the Gulf Coast region, including Corpus Christi, where emissions can be captured, transported, and sequestered in the pore space. Each DAC plant in the site is expected to be capable of removing up to 1 million metric tons of CO2 per year, yielding a total capacity of up to 30 million metric tons per year when all facilities are operational. Carbon Engineering (CE) began front-end planning and engineering for the DAC facilities in Kleberg County in October. The first 1-megatonne facility is intended to be replicated into multimillion-tonne deployments. The design is being adapted from the first large-scale, commercial facility to use CE’s DAC technology, which is already under construction in the Texas Permian Basin and is expected to start up in 2024. Founded in the 1853, the 825,000-acre King Ranch holds an iconic legacy in Texas. Now, 170 years later, it may build upon that legacy with technological advances not foreseen in its earlier years. In another Oxy deal in 2022, this one with Weyerhaeuser Co., more than 30,000 acres of pore space will be evaluated and potentially developed for CCS in Livingston Parish, Louisiana. Weyerhaeuser will continue to manage the aboveground acreage as a working forest. Also in Louisiana, Lapis Energy, a CCS developer and operator based in Dallas, completed the lease of over 14,000 acres of carbon pore space rights with a private landowner 20 miles west of New Orleans. Lapis believes the pore space in the area has the potential to store more than 500 million tonnes of industrial CO2 and has begun technical studies to progress a Class VI permit for the area. Lapis plans to be ready to begin injection by 2025. San Antonio-based Ozona CCS LLC has reached a definitive agreement in January with Texas Pacific Land Corp. to lease approximately 5,173 contiguous acres of land to drill one of the first commercial CO2 sequestration wells in the Permian Basin. The company will initially focus on the Permian Basin and the Texas Gulf Coast for CCS projects. Initial anchor customers will include natural gas processing plants and oil and gas operators in the region. The acreage has an estimated initial injection rate of up to 25,000 B/D and an estimated total storage capacity of at least 40 million metric tons of CO2. The target in-service date is in the third quarter of 2024. Rystad Energy’s Audun Martinsen, head of supply chain research, forecast a rise in low-carbon investments by $60 billion in 2023, 10% higher than 2022. Hydrogen and CCUS are expected to see the most significant annual increase, growing 149% and 136%, respectively. Total hydrogen spending will approach $7.8 billion in 2023, while CCUS investments will total about $7.4 billion. She wrote, “The new and relatively tiny market of suppliers exposed to low-carbon, well-related services is forecast to climb 33% this year, driven by geothermal drilling and CO2 injection. Despite the significant increase, investments in this market will only total about $3.7 billion.”

Carbon removals from nature restoration are no substitute for steep emission reductions

Rural healthcare facilities play a vital role in community well-being but are often overlooked in sustainability discussions. While urban hospitals integrate green infrastructure to mitigate carbon emissions, rural healthcare landscapes rely heavily on natural vegetation, particularly mature trees, for environmental benefits. This study investigates the carbon sequestration potential of mature trees within the landscape of Hospital Gerik, a rural public healthcare facility in northern Perak, Malaysia. The research adopts a quantitative methodology, using tree biomass analysis to calculate the annual carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration of all inventoried trees within the hospital compound. Results reveal a total carbon sequestration value of 172.66 tonnes CO2 per year with an overwhelming 92% contribution from mature trees, despite their lower population compared to younger trees. These findings highlight the ecological value of preserving mature trees, which play a imbalanced role in carbon sequestration and climate mitigation. The study reinforces the critical importance of incorporating mature tree preservation into landscape management policies for healthcare environments. It also calls for the development of national guidelines that recognize the environmental functions of natural vegetation in institutional settings, especially in low density or rural areas. Promoting such low carbon, nature-based strategies aligns with Malaysia’s broader climate goals under the 12th Malaysia Plan and the National Low Carbon Cities Framework.

Carbon sequestration in forests is a highly topical issue in the current climate change debate. The most important carbon pools are living and dead tree biomass, timber products and their substitution effects. The carbon sequestration of the living tree biomass mainly depends on tree species, site and silvicultural management. Type and duration of use are the main determinants of carbon sequestration in timber products and their potential for substitution. Forest management strategies can focus on the aim of carbon storage and thereby contribute to the socially demanded climate protection. However, for this to be achieved, knowledge about the effects of tree species, site and silvicultural management on carbon sequestration is required. For that purpose, the development of the five main tree species in Lower Saxony, Germany, was simulated under a near-natural and a carbon-oriented management at selected sites. The main tree species in the Lower Saxony State Forest are Oak, European beech, Norway spruce, Douglas fir and Scots pine. The selected sites are distributed in four growth districts in the lowlands and the mountainous regions of Lower Saxony, respec- tively. In order to identify important combinations of water and nutrient supply as well as the corresponding productivity of the tree species, information was gathered from site mapping and forest planing of the forest administration. Based on the operating inventory of the Lower Saxony State Forest, models for the generation of single tree data were created. These models were particularly used for the estimation of the current basal area and the underlying diameter distribution of the simulation stands. To represent silvicultural management, it is necessary to model intensity and the type of thinning. Using data from long-term thinning experiments of the Northwest German Forest Research Institute and quantile regression, it was possible to create species specific functions for maximum basal area, which are valid for Northwest Germany. Due to the larger database and the applied methods, these functions allow for more accurate estimates and can thus be regarded as improvements over the previously utilized methods. The ratio of current to maximum basal stand area was used for defining a realistic concept of utilization with height dependent thinnings. With help of this new concept, it is possible to simulate a graduated thinning, controlled by basal area. Furthermore, other utilization concepts can be modelled with the developed methods. The effects of silvicultural management on stand development were simulated with the forest growth simulator WaldPlaner. In order to estimate the consequences for carbon storage, single-tree data were converted to biomass with published functions. Additionally, harvested timber was allocated to product groups with a new allocation formula and a model for cascade use was integrated in the analysis. By forming a carbon sequestration rate, conclusions about the impact of water and nutrients on carbon storage are possible. Further, this rate allows for the comparison of tree species, sites and individual carbon pools. With respect to the considered pools, the sum of the carbon rates differs clearly among tree species and results in the following order: Douglas fir, Norway spruce > Scots pine > Beech, Oak. More weight can be given to carbon sequestration, as a subgoal of forest management, by selecting and mixing site adapted tree species, silvicultural management and con- sideration of the expectable wood qualities and risks. Site adapted coniferous species have a strong potential for climate protection. However, their cultivation should not harm the multifunctional sustainability of forests. Cascade and material usage of wood, followed by energetic utilization, are to be expanded, in order to keep as many wood products as possible in use. Forest policy has to manage several fields of action. On the one hand, concrete measures for resolving target conflicts between national climate policy and other strategies have to be developed (e.g., Nationale Biodiversitätsstrategie, Waldstrategie 2020). On the other hand, it is an important task to give the society a better understanding of the great importance forests have for carbon sequestration and sustainable provision of raw material. Nevertheless, there is still an enormous need for research on the impact of climate change and various risks and multiple use of wood on carbon sequestration in the forestry-wood-sector.

دراینمقاله،میزانو ارزش انتشارگازهایگلخانه‌ای اکسید‌نیتروس(N2O) و دی‌اکسید‌کربن(CO2)حاصلازتولید حبوبات منتخب ایران (شامل نخود، لوبیا و عدس) با استفاده از مدل GHGE،برایسالزراعی91-90برآورد شده است.نتایج نشان‌داد که استان‌هایفارسوبوشهر، به‌ترتیبباتولیدسالانه271/79 و 004/0 تنN2O، بیشترینوکمترینمیزانتولیدگاز گلخانه‌ایN2Oرا دارامی‌باشند. همچنین استان‌هایلرستانوبوشهر نیز به‌ترتیب باتولیدسالانه83/10327 و33/1‌تنCO2،بیشترینوکمترینمیزانتولیدگاز گلخانه‌ایCO2را به‌خود اختصاص داده‌اند. مجموعهزینه‌هایزیست‌محیطی انتشار گازهای گلخانه‌ای N2O و CO2 کلکشورنیزحدود705/32‌میلیاردریالبرآوردگردید. باتوجهبه یافته‌ها، مدیریت کودهای نیتروژنه مصرفی در مزارعوتوسعهسیاست‌کاهشمیزانانتشاربه‌همراه مالیات زیست‌محیطی انتشار گازهای گلخانه‌ای بر سطوح مختلف تولید پیشنهاد شده ‌است. واژه‌های کلیدی: اکسید‌نیتروس، دی‌اکسید‌کربن، حبوبات، گازهای گلخانه‌ای

Red mud as a carbon sink: Variability, affecting factors and environmental significance

Forests are considered a cost-effective way to reduce global CO2 emissions, yet the viability of community forest management for climate change mitigation remains underexplored. This study evaluates the carbon sequestration potential of the Piple Pokhara Community Forest, which spans 209.09 hectares and contains diverse tree species like Shorea robusta and Schima wallichii. Using stratified random sampling, 42 circular plots were established for carbon pool measurements. The findings reveal significant carbon stocks, with a total of 138.94 tons per hectare. Converted to CO2 equivalent, the forest sequesters 509.91 tons of CO2 per hectare. Shorea robusta is the dominant species, contributing 75.93% of the total carbon stock. The highest carbon reserves were in trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) over 30 cm and heights between 15.1 and 20 meters. This study underscores the Piple Pokhara Community Forest's considerable carbon sequestration potential and suggests economic benefits through carbon trading. It highlights the forest's role in climate change mitigation and its benefits for both forest conservation and community well-being.

Adapting ecosystem restoration for sustainable development in a changing world

The potential and cost of increasing forest carbon sequestration in Sweden

Most rural communities in developing countries, rely heavily on traditional biomass for cooking and lighting. Furthermore, a large area of forest land has been changed to other land-use types like agricultural land is becoming a serious problem in Wondo Genet district. This situation largely contributed to deforestation and forest degradation. Hence, assessing the efficiency of adopting an alternative source of energy was found to be very important. This study was carried out to examine the role of biogas technology in fuelwood saving and carbon emission reduction in Wondo Genet district, southern Ethiopia. The multi-stage sampling procedure was followed to select sample households. A total of 152 households (54 adopters and 98 non-adopters) were involved in the household survey. Moreover, 25 test subjects were taken randomly from both adoption categories to conduct Kitchen Performance Test. Descriptive statistics and independent-sample t-test were used to analyze the data. Results showed that the major fuel sources for domestic use were plantation forest, natural forest, crop residue, and animal dung, accounting 46.71 %, 30.92 %, 15.13 %, and 7.24 %, respectively. Among the 54 sampled biogas plants, 32 (59.26 %) were a digester size of 6 m3 whereas the remaining 22 (40.74 %) were of 8 m3. The annual fuelwood saving potential of the technology was found to be 1423.06 kg with an emission reduction potential of 2.1 tons of CO2 e per biogas plant annually. Accordingly, all functional biogas plants were estimated to reduce about 91.63 tons of carbon emission annually. Generally, the biogas was found to be a promising technology in combating the pressure on forest resources and mitigating climate change. Therefore, the energy sector of the country should encourage households to adopt biogas plants that have more than 8 m3 digester size to improve the fuelwood and carbon emission reduction potential.

Climate change requires mitigation actions, mainly preventive, by reducing greenhouse gas emissions; however, carbon sequestration is a complementary measure. Although short-term carbon sequestration can be somewhat effective, it is really interesting when it is permanent. Sequestration calculates the carbon removed from the atmosphere over a period, while the stock expresses the cumulative carbon of a forest. Sequestration and stock are closely related, but ecosystem service valuation often focuses on the former, which can discourage forest maintenance. This study analyzes carbon sequestration and storage in four pine forests located in central Spain, comparing its valuation for different equivalence times, a period considered sufficient to compensate for the emission of one ton of CO2 into the atmosphere. Equilibrium equivalence times were calculated for each forest, defined as the period in which carbon sequestration and stock payments are equal; values ranged from 33 to 101 years, with significant correlations with commercial volume and carbon stock. Equivalence times of 30–50 years are reasonable in Mediterranean forest stands with moderate growth and density, while in dense mature stands this time should increase to 50–100 years. Valuing carbon stocks and paying for them in a sustained manner over time promotes sustainable forest management, while the sale of sequestration credits may generate a speculative “greenwashing” market. In addition, payments for stocks can be applied to any forest stand and not only to new plantations. Carbon stock valuation is a win–win strategy for climate change mitigation, sustainable forest management, and rural development.