Abstract

Carbon uptake in terrestrial sinks is an important process in the global carbon balance and hence in limiting the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The agreement reached in Marrakesh (UNFCCC 2001), where some remaining issues in the Kyoto Protocol were sorted out, means that anthropogenic sinks can be used to a limited and carefully regulated extent by signatory parties to meet commitments. The agreement requires thorough monitoring and accounting of sinks and sources. IPCC will elaborate methods to estimate, measure, monitor, and report changes in carbon stocks and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks resulting from land use, land-use change and forestry activities. Further, IPCC is preparing a report on good practice guidance and uncertainty management relating to the measurement, estimation assessment of uncertainties, monitoring and reporting of net carbon stock changes and anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions by sources and removals by sinks in the land use, land­ use change and forestry sector, by the ninth conference (COP 9) of the UNFCCC Parties in 2003. Moreover, IPCC will develop practicable methodologies to factor out direct human­ induced changes from natural effects and indirect human-induced effects such as fertilization from atmospheric deposition of nitrogen or increased C02 concentration and the dynamic effects of age structure resulting from activities and practices before 1990, by COP 10 in 2004. Different methods can be used to account for changes in carbon stocks of different pools in forest ecosystems. All those methods have advantages and disadvantages and the usefulness of the results are strongly dependent on the objectives, the database, and the geographical scale. In general it is easy to get detailed information on greenhouse gas balances on a local level. The big challenge, however, is to develop and apply methods, which produce estimates on the national scale with acceptable accuracy in a cost-efficient way. The objective of this report was to evaluate Sweden's methodological options for quantifying changes in forest carbon pools on a national scale to meet the requirements in the Kyoto protocol. Our treatment of different methodological options has been quite general, since there will be a certain freedom for individual countries to develop suitable national methods for the reporting. Also, since Sweden is a country with rather stable land-use, our focus has been on Article 3.4 in the Kyoto Protocol, rather than the activities afforestation, reforestation, and deforestation under Article 3.3. Thus, our focus has been on methods for quantifying changes in carbon pools in forest management areas. No attempts have been made to factor out natural and indirect human-induced effects, which is likely to be required in future reporting. Nor have we made any attempts to study methods for estimating fluxes of non-C02 greenhouse gases. The approach of the study has been to compile and synthesize current knowledge and practises in Sweden and to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of various methods in terms of requirements and availability of data, included carbon pools, uncertainty of the outcome, etc. The work has considered: • What forest definition to use • How to define different forest carbon pools in the Swedish case • What methods are available for assessment of carbon stock changes at the national level and the corresponding accuracy in the national level estimates • What methods are available for purposes of verification • Needs for research and improvement of on-going national monitoring programmes to enhance the accuracy of the carbon pool change estimates

Keywords

forests; carbon cycle; carbon; monitoring

Published in

Arbetsrapport / Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Institutionen för skoglig resurshushållning
2003,
Publisher: Institutionen för skoglig resurshushållning, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet

UKÄ Subject classification

Forest Science

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/125939