Gg CO2e Research Articles

Estimation of Potential GHG Emission Reduction through Corresponded REDD Plus Activities in Remote Area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia—Case Study in the Paduran Area

REDD plus activities corresponded in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia and their GHG emission reductions potential were analyzed. Target area is located in a remote area from Pa-langkaraya, Capital of Central Kalimantan Province and consisted of immigrating people mainly from Java Island. In the target area, most of local people conducted unsustainable land use activities (e.g. slash-and-burn agriculture). From analysis of past land use in the target area, there were drastic changes in land use from 1989 after migration began. Natural secondary forest with high density was greatly reduced (2010 levels are approximately 80% of 1996 levels) and converted to cropland and settlement. Also, the reduction in natural secondary forest with high density allowed Melaleuca cajuputi Powell forest to rapidly increase in size (2010 levels are approximately 3.7 times as 1996 levels). Additionally, as marked point, there was an increase in oil palm plantations from 2008 and onwards. From results of land use change in the past, mean annual GHG emissions of 5450 Gg CO2e year-1 had been continued until year 2010. To consider counter-measure for reducing GHG emissions in the target area, the relationship between past land use changes and human activities was analyzed through workshops with stakeholders of 6 different groups (village authorities, forest fire fighting team, members of farmers group, large landowners, workers outside of village and oil palm plantation and mother having small children). The results of the workshops showed that the core problem of unsustainable land use faced by 4 of the 6 groups of stakeholders was the lack of job opportunities (means to earn a living) in the target area. Also, it was learned that core groups considered oil palm plantations is to alleviate the problem and provide a source of alternative income. Furthermore, the workshops indicated that future land use scenario (reference scenario) will be based on income from oil palm plantations and, to prevent such land conversion, counter-measures (REDD plus project scenario) of indirect activities of local people’s lifestyle improvement (e.g. A new forestry system which uses abundant resources of M. cajuputi forest) and reducing pressures on forest resources should be introduced. This study indicated, by implementing REDD plus project in the target area, potential reduction in GHG emissions is quite large and such GHG reduction will be essential as mitigation activities under the new mitigation mechanism, the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) between Indonesia and Japan.

Integrating Life-cycle Environmental and Economic Assessment with Transportation and Land Use Planning

The environmental outcomes of urban form changes should couple life-cycle and behavioral assessment methods to better understand urban sustainability policy outcomes. Using Phoenix, Arizona light rail as a case study, an integrated transportation and land use life-cycle assessment (ITLU-LCA) framework is developed to assess the changes to energy consumption and air emissions from transit-oriented neighborhood designs. Residential travel, commercial travel, and building energy use are included and the framework integrates household behavior change assessment to explore the environmental and economic outcomes of policies that affect infrastructure. The results show that upfront environmental and economic investments are needed (through more energy-intense building materials for high-density structures) to produce long run benefits in reduced building energy use and automobile travel. The annualized life-cycle benefits of transit-oriented developments in Phoenix can range from 1.7 to 230 Gg CO2e depending on the aggressiveness of residential density. Midpoint impact stressors for respiratory effects and photochemical smog formation are also assessed and can be reduced by 1.2-170 Mg PM10e and 41-5200 Mg O3e annually. These benefits will come at an additional construction cost of up to $410 million resulting in a cost of avoided CO2e at $16-29 and household cost savings.

Future change in carbon in harvested wood products from Irish forests established prior to 1990

Background: The Kyoto Protocol allows carbon in forests to contribute to emission-reduction targets. This has been extended to include carbon in harvested wood products (HWP). A projected baseline approach is proposed to identify business as usual and incentivize activities that reduce emissions or increase removals relative to reference level. In this article, we describe methods to calculate the projected reference level. Results: Wood product categories were derived using a top-down approach based on timber harvest data and sawmill statistics. The average of the overall projected forest management reference level for 2013–2020 was -206.81 Gg CO2-e including HWP and -72.72 Gg CO2-e excluding carbon stock change in HWP. Conclusion: These results highlight the potential of HWP to contribute to GHG mitigation strategies.