permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] The carbon market and sustainable development
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 03:46:59 -0700
From: Jonathan Haskett <jhaskett2002@YAHOO.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Greetings to SANET readers:

Those of you who are interested in the potential for
sustainable agriculture systems to combine carbon
sequestration with sustainable development may be
interested in the following post.

Many of the most promising projects  that help the
rural poor such as agroforestry and community forestry
as well as soil conservation,   green manures ,
composting and other efforts to build up organic
matter in the soil,  also sequester carbon from the
atmosphere. Thus they also help mitigate global
climate change.  Sequestration on land has the
potential to offset annual global emissions by as much
as 20%.  These kinds of development projects can be of
great benefit to some of the poorest people in some of
the poorest countries, people who are the most
vulnerable to the harm caused by climate change.

The market in carbon emissions reductions has expanded
enormously in the last year  and is expected to grow
to over  10 billion dollars in 2006. Access to some of
these financial resources could make many of these
projects,  of a kind known under the Kyoto accords  as
Land Use Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF)
projects,  a reality. This is a win-win situation in
which carbon finance can leverage multiple benefits
beyond the carbon payments themselves. Agroforestry
and community forestry projects have the potential to
provide fruit, vegetables, medicine, firewood, natural
insecticides, resins, craftwood, and building
materials for smallholders.  By increasing the organic
matter in the soil the projects can improve its
fertility, structure, ease of cultivation and water
holding capacity. Access to nearby firewood reduces
women’s workload while medicinal plants can provide
them with an alternate, independent, source of income.
By diversifying the productive base food and income
security are enhanced and the trajectory of degraded
landscape can be transformed to one in which
productivity is increasing year by year.

Yet the carbon market has not fulfilled its potential
to help with sustainable development.  The rules
governing the LULUCF favor rich countries over poor
ones. A LULUCF project that takes place in an
industrialized country can include afforestation,
reforestation, cropland, grazingland,  re-vegetation
and forest conservation. But if a project takes place
in a developing country it is limited to afforestation
and reforestation only.  Industrialized countries can
gain unlimited credits from afforestation and
reforestation (A/R) projects within their borders, but
are limited to 1% of their 1990 emissions if they get
those A/R credits from a developing country.  The
European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) by far
the world’s largest carbon market, excludes LULUCF
projects altogether. These exclusions and restrictions
cut off access to the market for poor people and
countries for whom land and its potential to sequester
carbon are the only way they can participate.

Inclusion in the EU ETS is critical because even
projects that have overcome Kyoto’s limitations on
project type and size still need to get sufficient
funding to be viable. Prices within the EU ETS are now
over $30/ton while outside prices range form
$3-$7/ton.  Sustainable development projects often
have higher costs because they work with numerous,
widely dispersed smallholders.  I recently spoke with
an organization in Brazil that uses agroforestry to
alleviate poverty and they said that $8/ton was the
minimum they needed to make the project viable. Low
prices make many valuable projects impossible while
higher prices expand the reach and scope of these same
projects.  While opening the EU ETS would not change
the other long-range problems with the carbon market
it would provide access to important resources
allowing many valuable projects to go forward.

In an effort to change this and to expand access to
these resources for the poor I have written a letter
asking that the EU ETS change its position to allow
the participation of LULUCF projects. The letter was
drafted in conjunction with others working on
sustainable development and conservation, has garnered
signatories from organizations and individuals
globally and is being circulated to European decision
makers concerned with this issue.  To learn more about
this initiative and how to support it please visit the
website at:

carbondevinit.org

Sincerely yours,
Jonathan Haskett