Deforestation and Avoided DeforestationThis section addresses deforestation and avoided deforestation, that is areas of primary growth forest that have not been cut down or overly disturbed this is the last part of the Carbonators Series. ReforestationStopping Deforestation cuts CO2 emissions, cutting the world's deforestation in half could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 3 billion tonnes per year or more. Globally it is estimated that 4.4 million trees are harvested or destroyed every day or 1.5 billion+ per year. Over 1 billion of those trees are not replaced. A concentrated reforestation plan with an emphasis on tropical regions could potentially reduce annual emissions at about ten times the emissions reductions that would be achieved during the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.Initiatives on Forests and Climate are coming from the UK, the US, Germany, Brazil, New Zealand, Japan and Indonesia and are receiving financial support from such institutions such as the World Bank which will support new forest planting, work to limit the destruction of the world's remaining forests, and promote more sustainable forest management. Programs that promote sustainable forest management but also help to diversify the economic base of often indigenous forest-dependent communities, Almost 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions come from clearing the world's forests, second only to emissions from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity and more than all of the world's emissions from transport put together. Avoided DeforestationAvoided deforestation was not heavily weighted in the initial Kyoto Treaty and so has to function in tandem with other programs in order to constitute a CDM project which would allow these resources to be securitized and then monetized as carbon offset credits.   This will probably be corrected in the 2012 installment of Kyoto as standing tropical rainforests play a more significant role in the carbon cycle than their temperate counterparts. Avoided deforestation can also be paired with certain specified industries in order to securitize the carbon offset credit.   These industries include but are not limited to forestry companies involved in the harvesting and planting of timber resources, paper manufacturers, government agencies involved in reforestation, oil refineries and airlines.This kind of pairing functions as a [CDM] enabler and activates the carbon offset credit potential for standing trees (Avoided Deforestation).  It is calculated on the number of tonnes of carbon each tree can put back into the ground on an annual basis.   The weight assigned to tropical forests in these parings is likely to increase due to measurement based science results that have recently been published and are currently being considered. Having some kind of emissions trading scheme is a practical and immediate action that can be taken. Active reforestation programs functioning in conjunction with CDM pairing schemes create an active economic imperative for both preserving standing forests and planting new ones. Something few can object too even if they object to the details of various offset trading schemes that comply with the general outline of the Kyoto Accords version one. Version two will arrive in 2012 at which time the additional science which has come in will be taken into account along with a political update.
Nearly Carbon Neutral Transport