Kyoto Protocol and UK forests

 

The Kyoto Protocol – what is it?

The Kyoto Protocol ^(PDF-66K) is an agreement among governments that sets targets for reductions in GHG emissions and specifies the mechanisms that may be used to achieve them. These include reductions in the consumption of fossil fuels and options involving carbon sequestration through forestry activities. The IPCC is continuing to develop a framework and methodologies by which governments can realise and report their national GHG emissions reductions. There are three Articles of the Protocol directly relevant to forests and forest management:

• Article 2.1
  Calls for the ‘protection and enhancement of sinks and reservoirs of greenhouse gases’ and the ‘promotion of sustainable forest management practices, afforestation and reforestation’.
   
• Article 3.3
  States that ‘the net changes in greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks resulting from direct human-induced land-use change and forestry activities limited to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation since 1990, measured as verifiable changes in carbon stocks in each commitment period, shall be used to meet commitments under the Protocol’. By any generally accepted interpretation, restricting the accounting to afforestation, reforestation and deforestation activities since 1990 (sometimes referred to as the ‘Kyoto forests’) means that only a very small percentage of the world’s forests are covered by Article 3.3. The Protocol further stipulates that greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks associated with these activities shall be reported in a ‘transparent and verifiable manner’.
   
• Article 3.4
  Allows countries to account for carbon stock changes and non-CO2 GHG emissions arising from other activities including the management of forests existing before 1990. The magnitude of any carbon sequestration due to human intervention must be verifiable. The Kyoto Protocol places restrictions on the extent to which carbon sequestration of this kind can be claimed, and details of how this would be monitored and reported are currently being elaborated by the IPCC.

The Kyoto Protocol also makes provision for industrialised countries (so-called ‘Annex I’ countries) to claim carbon credits in ‘non- Annex I’ countries through specific projects aimed at reducing GHG emissions (the Clean Development Mechanism: Article 12) or through collaboration with other Annex I countries such that emissions reduction credits can be transferred (Joint Implementation: Article 6).

What contribution do forests make in the UK?

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the UK is committed to reducing CO2 emissions from the rate reported for 1990 of 165 MtC/yr by 12½ % (or 20.6 MtC/yr) during the five-year period from 2008 to 2012. A larger, voluntary target has been adopted within the UK to reduce emissions below the 1990 level by 20% (about 33 MtC/yr) by 2010. The UK’s Climate Change Programme sets out measures across the economy intended to make this goal achievable. A summary of the UKs carbon emissions is given below.

UK carbon emissions (MtC yr^-1)

Source	1990		2001
	Emissions	Removals	Emissions	Removals
Road transport fuel consumption	31.8		33.6
Energy industries fuel consumption	62.2		54.3
Other fuel consumption	61.1		60.6
Industrial processes	3.9		3.2
Land-use change and forestry	5.3	-2.9	4.0	-3.2
Waste incineration	0.5		0.4
Total	164.8	-2.9	156.1	-3.2

It has been estimated that carbon sequestration through afforestation in the UK accounted for some 0.4 MtC/yr in 2001, rising to a value of around 2.9 MtC/yr if the contribution of forests planted before 1990 (‘non-Kyoto forests’) is included. Projections to 2010 are for these values to rise to 0.7 and 3.2 MyC/yr, respectively, representing a contribution of either 3.4 % or 15.5 % to the emissions reduction target set for the UK in the period 2008 to 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol. To place the UK’s role in climate change mitigation in a global context, the total emissions reductions negotiated under the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 amounted to 208 MtC/yr.