Peat carbon management

This Technology Transfer Advances Antigua and Barbuda's

• Nationally Determined Contribution to "enhance the established enabling legal, policy and institutional environment for a low carbon emission development pathway to achieve poverty reduction and sustainable development".
• Sustainable Energy Action Plan
• 2010 National Energy Policy

Context

Materials and products used in building, such as steel and aluminum, are created by a production process of raw material extraction, raw material process, melting, manufacture to final products, and transportation to building sites. Each of the steps consumes energy, which is also expressed in terms of carbon emissions. Total carbon emissions of all building materials and products and the construction involved to put them together is known as building’s embodied carbon. Embodied carbon accounts for about 20% of the carbon emissions from the building sector (Lane, 2010).

GRID-Arendal is a Norwegian foundation that supports the United Nations Environment Programme.  It is a centre of excellence for the scientific analysis of environmental issues in many areas including environmental assessments, ocean issues and polar regions.

Viresco Solutions is a consulting firm based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Its core business is greenhouse gas offset policy development and implementation, greenhouse gas emissions quantification, sustainable supply chain development, environmental offset methodology development, and providing technical assistance to others undertaking carbon offset project development. Its clients include industry and non-governmental associations, large private sector companies, and local, provincial and federal governments.

Land management options for mitigation fall in the following four categories: a) cropland management; b) grazing land management/pasture improvement; c) management of agricultural lands and d) restoration of degraded lands. This description focuses on the restoration of degraded lands. Within this description, a differentiation is made between a) management of organic and peaty soils and b) restoration of other degraded lands.

Indonesia’s recurrent peatland fires generate toxic haze and release globally significant amounts of greenhouse gases, with severe impacts on public health and economy within Indonesia and neighboring  countries (e.g. Malaysia, Singapore).

This flyer presents a collaborative research endeavor between CIFOR, the Lancaster Environment Centre and the University of Cambridge on diverse stakeholder perceptions of the costs and benefits of the peatland fires in Riau, and opinions on the effectiveness of prospective solutions.

Results demonstrate that the effects of management on cropland can be beneficial for carbon and nutrient retention without risking (large) yield losses.

Nevertheless, effects on soil carbon are small compared with extant stocks in natural and semi-natural ecosystem types and managed forests.

While agricultural management can be targeted towards sustainable goals, from a climate change or carbon sink perspective avoiding deforestation or reforestation constitutes a far more effective overall strategy for maintaining and enhancing global carbon sinks.

The focus of this report is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which was formed in 2004 to promote the use of sustainable palm. RSPO members account for around 40 per cent of global palm oil production.

In late 2009, Indonesia made a voluntary commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 26 per cent by 2020, or by 41 per cent with international assistance, compared to business as usual. The country aims to achieve 87 per cent of this goal by reducing emissions from deforestation and peatland conversion. In a step towards achieving these emission reductions, a decree was signed in 2011 putting into effect a two-year moratorium on issuing new permits for use of primary natural forest and peatland.

According to this report, peatlands are the largest carbon store in the terrestrial biosphere, containing twice as much carbon as all the world"s forests combined. There are an estimated 25 million hectares of peatland in the South-East Asian region, making it the most dominant wetland forest type. The objectives of this report are to review and develop potential financing and economic incentive options at the regional or country level to support the protection and sustainable management of peatlands, particularly in South-East Asia.