Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 10-26
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10 Overview The scientific consensus is that the Earth's climate is changing as a result of human-caused emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHGs) and that a changing climate poses severe risk to human and ecological systems.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 11 This chapter describes the basics of carbon sequestration, types of project activities that technically can be implemented in the ROW, the current state of carbon offset markets and protocols to bring projects to market, the considerations for selecting a potential site and vegetation types, and how to conduct an evaluation of a potential opportunity. What Is Carbon Sequestration?
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12 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation • Increasing the amount of carbon stored below ground in soils by increasing the amount of soil organic matter, decreasing the loss of soil organic matter, or a combination of both. Increased plant growth, less plant removal, and less soil disturbance generally aid in increasing soil organic matter.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 13 implemented in accordance with strict eligibility, accounting, and verification rules, variously called "protocols" or "methodologies." These rules, promulgated by various offset issuers, are intended to provide offset buyers assurance that the offset project results in credible GHG reductions or removals. To be considered credible, a project must meet five quality criteria: Real -- Projects should result in actual emissions reductions or removals (i.e., sequestration)
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14 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation Voluntary Carbon Offset Markets Until U.S. compliance markets more fully develop, the more significant market segment for U.S.-based projects is the voluntary offset market.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 15 American Carbon Registry The American Carbon Registry (ACR, americancarbonregistry.org) is the third most utilized voluntary carbon offset program accounting for 6% of global and 14% of North American voluntary market transactions in 2011 (Peters-Stanley and Hamilton, 2012)
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16 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation Under the program rules, capped entities can meet up to 8% of their compliance obligations with carbon offsets. This equals approximately 201 million tCO2e through 2020 (Hernandez, 2012)
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 17 Identify Applicable Protocol or Methodology The pre-development feasibility analysis should include the identification of an applicable protocol or methodology. Each offset program has different project eligibility rules, management requirements, and carbon accounting procedures.
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18 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation While offset issuers generally do not specify a minimum acreage for a project, given current market conditions, professional project developers look for projects offering annual emission reductions on the order of 20,000 tCO2e. While carbon sequestration rates vary by species and growing conditions, in order to achieve this threshold, an afforestation project would require an area at least 5,000 acres in size.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 19 size. Fast-growing trees sequester carbon more quickly than slow-growing trees, yet slower-growing trees tend to live longer and therefore sequester more carbon over their lifetime.
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20 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation It is important to use such values cautiously, since they may over-represent the project potential. Since existing ROW grasslands are already in perennial vegetative cover, the existing ROW vegetation is already sequestering some carbon, whereas annual croplands can actually result in net emissions of GHGs due to cultivation, soil loss, and biomass harvest.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 21 of small projects prohibitive. The various costs are described briefly below and in more detail in the Feasibility Toolkit.
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22 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation A PDD summarizes the project's activities, defines a project's geographic boundaries, documents how the project meets eligibility requirements, estimates the project's GHG benefits, and describes the monitoring plan and procedures. Project implementation must follow the PDD exactly, as it is the basis by which a project will be formally evaluated for carbon offset issuance.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 23 Once the project has been registered, project activities are eligible for implementation. It is important that implementation follow exactly the activities described in the PDD, as the issuance of carbon offsets depends on the future verification that the project has followed these plans.
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24 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation Notably, VCS does not require projects developed following a CDM-approved methodology to meet a strict definition of forest, as required by other carbon offset standards programs. As a result, it is possible that a tree-planting project in the highway ROW could generate carbon offsets via VCS using a similar pathway to the CDM-approved protocol.
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The Carbon Offset Market: A Primer for DOTs 25 • That project areas be monitored and maintained for a period of 100 years following issuance of any offsets, and • A prohibition on the harvest or removal of reforested or preexisting trees within the project area for a period of 30 years. Urban forest protocols -- CAR's Urban Forest Protocol is the only carbon offset protocol specifically designed for tree-planting activities in urban and other built-up lands.
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From page 26... ...
26 Guidebook for Designing and Managing Rights-of-Way for Carbon Sequestration and Biomass Generation Urban forest protocols -- There are no ACR-approved methodologies specifically for urban forestry project activities. However, it may be possible to develop such projects via ACR using a CDM-approved afforestation methodology, so long as the project meets ACR's project eligibility requirements, such as minimum canopy cover and project duration.
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