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THE ROLE OF BOREAL FORESTS IN CO2 BALANCE – ASSESSMENT
AND LEGAL FRAMEWORK
Ministerial workshop and conference
Tuczno (near Poznan), Poland, 26 – 29 April 2016
ANNOUNCEMENT no. 5
Ministerial workshop
Forest gather substantial amount of carbon and it has great mitigation potential which can be
enhanced by implementation of additional measures in the forestry sector. Therefore, Polish State
Forests National Forest Holding is developing a project on experimental Forest Carbon Farms which
will be based on additional activities related to sustainable forest management. It will lead to increased
carbon sequestration and it will create the possibility of selling additional units of CO2.
Strengthening incentives to use forest mitigation potential is in compliance with the principle of
combating climate change in the most economically efficient manner. It is a principle mentioned in the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which promotes mitigation actions which
are optimal in terms of costs. Absorption by the LULUCF sector is much more cost effective than
implementation of activities related to, e.g. CCS technology.
The aim of the workshop is to demonstrate the pilot version of the Forest Carbon Farms project in the
forest research station in Tuczno. We will show a unique model for determining the carbon content in
forest ecosystems and change of that content as a function of time, including changes as a result of
dedicated programs of forest management. The Carbon Forest Farms project should help international
community and the EU to develop and put into practice a formal system mitigating concentration of
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through increased accumulation of carbon through forest
ecosystems.
Ministerial conference
Polish presentations will concentrate on CO2 sequestration in forests and soils: methods of
measurement and options for the use of removal units. The presentations will continue discussion on
methods of measurement commenced during the workshop.
We will debate over legal bases of Carbon Forest Farms which will be guided by the implementation
of the above described pilot project. Legal aspects of Carbon Forest Farms as one of the nonproduction functions of forests will be introduced. We will also present the results of scientific research
based on analysis of trees in stands’ current characteristics and its changes over 15-20 years as a result
of dedicated management.
Possibilities for the use of removal units in the EU carbon market
The role and potential of greenhouse gas removals by sinks should be incorporated into the EU climate
policy to a much greater degree. In particular, the EU should focus on taking adequate action aiming
at enhancing the sequestration potential of forests and enabling appropriate accounting for removals.
The removal of greenhouse gases through sequestration should be treated in an equal manner as other
actions for emission reduction.
With regard to the above, the presentation will elaborate on different options for incorporation and
utilization of removal units in the EU climate policy. It will present different concepts for establishing
a carbon architecture and market based instruments that would include the role of additional
sequestration of greenhouse gases in the form of removal units (RMUs). One of them is concept
presented in the Announcement no. 3, which envisages linking RMUs with the EU ETS based on
previous experiences with CERs (Certified Emission Reduction) and ERUs (Emission Reduction Units),
through a direct use of the removal units for annual emission accounting in the EU ETS. Due to the fact
that up till now the use of CERs/ERUs in the EU ETS has been limited in quantity, one may assume that
similar quantitative limitations would apply to removal units. There could also be different ways of
managing (the volume of) the removal units in the EU ETS scheme, including allowing the use of
removal units only to installations exposed to significant risks of carbon leakage.
Another possibility for inclusion of removal units into the EU ETS is the project based approach (use of
art. 24a EU ETS directive) that would envisage undertaking additional activities in the forestry sector
leading to the increase of removal of carbon dioxide. Credits issued under the project based approach
could be used for compliance within the EU ETS and non-ETS.
Furthermore, removal units could also be used on the national level by small installations excluded
from the EU ETS scheme. Article 27 of the EU ETS Directive enables small emitters to be excluded from
the EU ETS, with the aim of reducing the administrative burdens on these installations. The Directive
requires that excluded installations are subject to a domestic scheme that will deliver an equivalent
contribution to emission reductions as the EU ETS. In that case removal units and an appropriate
national trading scheme of those units would be an equivalent measure for small installations.
Operators of installations excluded from the EU ETS would be able to account their annual GHG
emissions using removal units.