Posts Tagged ‘Biosequestration’
In a media statement released today, the WA State Government announced that the Forest Products Commission (FPC) will close down its carbon division.
The decision, announced by the Forestry Minister, Terry Redman, will doubtless be well received by the other main players in Australia’s developing forest carbon sector. Companies like Carbon Conscious , CO2 Australia and Rewards Group have been arguing for a while now, and with some justification, that a State Goverment owned entity should not be competing against the private sector in the carbon space.
FPC had previously completed deals with Synergy (5000 hectares) and BP but uncertainty over a start date for emissions trading had already forced an organisation restructure late last year.
The immediate future of existing contracts is not made clear in the statement, however FPC “will be exploring ways it can transfer this work to the private sector” according to Minister Redman.
CSIRO recently released a report titled “An Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation and Carbon Biosequestration Opportunities from Rural Land Use”. The report, commissioned by the Queensland Government, examines and attempts to quantify the various biosequestration and carbon abatement opportunities associated with rural land use.
The study builds on the work completed by Garnaut (2008) in looking at three main areas:
- Agriculture — soil carbon, land rehabilitation, management of savanna burnings and so on
- Forestry — new carbon forestry plantings, carbon banks in existing forestry, biodiversity plantings
- Bioenergy - biofuels and biochar
Some key points include:
- Potential biosequestration from dedicated carbon sink forestry projects may be as high as 750 Mt CO2-e per year. Garnaut had estimated this at only 143 Mt
- Biochar has good potential for sequestration but has only been looked at for sugar cane biomass
- A number of these measures compete for resources, either land or skills. For example, biochar from sugar cane competes with generation of biofuel from sugar cane
At 172 pages it’s a significant document but for those interested in biosequestration and the potentially increasing role it might play in the Australia’s climate change response, I encourage you to have a read.
