SOIL CARBON AND CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS

From Kansas State University's:

Consortium for Agricultural Soils Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (CASMGS)

http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ctec

Charles W. Rice, K-State Soil Microbiology, National CASMGS Coordinator (785) 532-7217 cwrice@ksu.edu

Kent McMay, K-State Soil and Water Conservation Specialist (785) 532-5776 kmcvay@ksu.edu

Steve L. Watson, CASMGS Communications (785) 532-7105 swatson@oznet.ksu.edu

June 19, 2003

No. 21

This week's issue:

Kansas:

* Carbon Sequestration Discussed At Conference In Manhattan

Research:

* Researchers Work To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Contained In Cows’ Breath

* Tropical Continental Shelves Are CO2 Source, Not Sink

National:

* USDA Offers New Incentives For Greenhouse Gas Reduction And Carbon Storage

International:

* Current Status Of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Mandates Worldwide

* Rich Countries See Higher Greenhouse Gas Emissions

* Europe Begins Talks On Emissions Trading Scheme

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Carbon Sequestration discussed

at conference in manhattan

On June 6, a technical conference and U.S. Senate subcommittee field hearing (chaired by Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan.) on carbon sequestration was held at the K-State Alumni Center. Speakers and those testifying at the hearing included Chuck Rice, K-State Agronomy; Melissa Carey, Climate Change Policy Specialist, Environmental Defense; Ted Hartsig, Senior Program Manager, SES, Inc.; Michael Walsh, Senior Vice President, Chicago Climate Exchange; William Hohenstein, Director, Global Change Program Office, USDA; Joel Brown, Natural Resources Conservation Service; and Peggy Blackman, Kansas Coalition for Carbon Management.

The following is a summary of the speakers’ comments.

Chuck Rice, K-State: Using current technology, scientists can accurately measure soil organic carbon (SOC) levels and make general projections about the effects of various agricultural management practices on carbon sequestration. Enough research has been conducted in Kansas and other regions of the country to state with some confidence that no-till can sequester an additional 0.1 to 0.2 tons of C per acre per year compared to conventional tillage. New grass plantings and related conservation-related work can sequester about 0.15 to 0.5 tons of C per acre per year. Improved rangeland management practices can add up to 0.1 tons of C per acre per year. (To convert tons of C per acre to tons of CO2 per acre, multiply by 3.66.)

Much research remains to be done on topics such as SOC measurement techniques, long-term stability of SOC, more specific information on the physical and economic effect of various Best Management Practices, the upper limits of SOC under Best Management Practices, modeling to extrapolate site-specific data to large regions, and many others. But the current state of knowledge is adequate to support the concept that through the use of Best Management Practices, agricultural soils can act as a carbon sink, and can legitimately be used as a source of carbon offset credits in a carbon emissions trading scheme.

Melissa Carey, Environmental Defense: Environmental Defense is a 300,000-member organization headquartered in New York City. It recently brokered a deal between Entergy, a Louisiana-based energy company, and farmers in the Pacific Northwest Direct Seed Association (PNDSA), an organization representing 300 farmers in the Wahington-Orgegon-Idaho area. Entergy is leasing 30,000 tons of carbon offsets over a 10-year period from the farmers, who are practicing direct seeding (no-till or reduced-tillage). Entergy is paying less than $5 per ton of carbon per year to the participating farmers and landowners through the PNDSA.

Environmental Defense is interested in helping to develop projects in many states that will sequester carbon. Environmental Defense has made carbon sequestration a priority initiative in its efforts to fight global warming.

“The interaction between land and the atmosphere is often underappreciated, and American farmers and foresters are beginning to see the potential of this underused tool to change the climate change equation. Once again, American ingenuity is taking hold,” Carey said. “We believe that biological carbon sequestration will be most effective if it is integrated into a cap-and-trade program that uses markets to deliver economic and environmental benefits. Such a program would allow businesses to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing credits from landowners who increase carbon sequestration in forests and agricultural lands.”

Environmental Defense is not currently involved in any projects in Kansas. However, Environmental Defense is interested in partnering with local-level organizations in Kansas that are involved in carbon sequestration and other greenhouse gas mitigation projects.

Ted Hartsig, SES, Inc.: Measuring and verifying SOC levels is one of the significant challenges to future carbon sequestration programs in agriculture. SES, Inc. is a private concern in Lenexa, Kansas that can provide the necessary third-party verification of SOC in a carbon offset trading scheme. This is one among several keys to the development of a successful carbon trading program in the U.S.

“Sound, scientifically-based verification practices will enable carbon emission reduction credit trading to withstand scrutiny and challenges . . . Verification will also identify and expel those who seek to cheat the system through faulty claims of carbon sequestration, including overstating claims of contracted acreage, non-performance of accepted and agreed-upon agricultural practices, and excessive ‘leakage’ of carbon dioxide from their practices,” Hartsig said. “By verifying and validating carbon sequestration practices, and therefore providing a warranty of carbon emission reduction credits, the U.S. carbon trading program will attain national acceptance and international recognition.”

Michael Walsh, Chicago Climate Exchange: The Chicago Climate Exchange is still working on the details and contract arrangements of a carbon credit trading program for farmers in Kansas. Basically, Chicago Climate Exchange is arranging for participating farmers in the eastern half of the state to get a small per-acre payment for carbon sequestration through no-till; and for participating farmers throughout Kansas to get a slightly larger per-acre payment for new grass seedings. Farmers would sign up for the program with an “aggregator,” which would be a local organization willing to act as the administrator of the program. One example of a possible aggregator would be the Kansas Farm Bureau. Negotiations on finalizing arrangements with one or more aggregators in Kansas are still underway, so it will be a while before farmers are able to sign up for carbon credit payments. The program might be in place by this fall. Payments have not been set yet, but initial estimates were from $1-2 per acre for no-till, and about $2 per acre for new grass seedings. That just gives a ballpark figure of what’s being discussed, and should not be considered final by any means.

William Hohenstein, USDA: “Last year, USDA was directed to develop new accounting rules and guidelines for reporting greenhouse gas activities on forests and agricultural lands. The new accounting rules and guidelines will be used by companies and individuals to report their activities to the Department of Energy (DOE) under its voluntary greenhouse gas reporting system. The DOE reporting program is undergoing revisions that are expected to be completed by January 2004,” Hohenstein reported.

“The budget for USDA’s participation in the U.S. Global Change Research Program and Climate Change Research Initiative (CCRI) has increased in each of the last two years. In FY 2004, USDA is requesting an additional $7.1 million for President Bush’s CCRI priorities.” According to Hohenstein, the increases requested for FY 2004 fall primarily in the following areas:

* Improving the methods for measuring and estimating above- and below-ground carbon storage on forest and agricultural systems.

* Collecting carbon flux measurement data at specific locations that can be scaled to regional and national statistics.

* Developing management practices and techniques for increasing carbon sequestration and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

* Demonstration projects to facilitate the incorporation of carbon sequestration into USDA programs.

* Finalizing the new accounting rules and guidelines for estimating and reporting carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions from forests and agricultural activities.

Joel Brown, NRCS: For a carbon offset trading program involving agricultural soil carbon sequestration to be successful, it is critical to have a sound carbon accounting program. There must be independent verification of the carbon registry that would be established within a national carbon credit trading exchange scheme. There must also be measurement protocols for estimating carbon sequestration rates under various conditions. Agriculture will not be the only seller of carbon credits in the emerging carbon trading market. Agriculture must be willing to price its carbon offset credits competitively with other sources of carbon credits in order to play a role in this market.

Peggy Blackman, Kansas Coalition for Carbon Management: Many farmers in Kansas are willing and able now to participate in a carbon credit trading program from the Chicago Climate Exchange, or another kind of greenhouse gas mitigation project that might be proposed by Environmental Defense. The Kansas Coalition for Carbon Management is eager to help facilitate any such programs. Acceptance of no-till has been good in Kansas, for agronomic and economic reasons, and grass plantings have always been an important part of Kansas agriculture.

-- Steve Watson swatson@oznet.ksu.edu

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Researchers Work to Reduce greenhouse gas

Contained in Cows’ Breath

The University of Nebraska recently reported that a team of university researchers are developing an additive for cattle feed in an effort to help reduce the 100 to 150 gallons of methane released each day through the breathing of a typical cow.

"The reason we're focusing on methane is because it's a short-lived, highly potent greenhouse gas that needs to be reduced," said University of Nebraska biochemistry professor Stephen Ragsdale.

According to Utah State University range livestock nutritionist Ken Olson, the methane contained in cow breath is produced in the first of the animal's four stomachs, known as the rumen, and travels through the bloodstream out through the lungs.

Ragsdale noted that the University of Nebraska team has been working for several years to develop a compound capable of blocking methane-producing enzymes contained in the rumen, 10 examples of which were recently tested on rumen fluid extracted from steer.

"Of those, about 20 to 30 percent are indeed doing what we expect them to do," said Ragsdale, noting that the first test on a live animal will probably involve a sheep.

-- Associated Press, June 13, 2003

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Tropical Continental Shelves

Are CO2 Source, Not Sink

A group of researchers led by Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) biogeochemist Gregg Brunskill recently released a new international study examining the role of continental shelves in the Earth's carbon cycle. The study found that continental shelves in tropical areas act as a carbon dioxide (CO2) source, contrary to many current climate models which consider the shelves to be "significant" carbon sinks. It was long believed that continental shelves act as sites of atmospheric carbon dioxide removal by burying organic matter in sediments.

AIMS said the Tropical River-Ocean Processes in Coastal Settings (TROPICS) researchers studied the burial rate of organic carbon in the sediment of the Gulf of Papua, the Great Barrier Reef, the North West Shelf off Western Australia and the coastal zone of the Amazon River in South America.

"Wet tropical parts of the world contribute over 50 percent of global continental runoff and sediment, but these regions do not appear to be sites of large carbon sequestration. It could force those predicting the fate of fossil fuel carbon dioxide and climate change to rework their models," said Brunskill.

"Our measurements suggest that most of the organic carbon being delivered to the continental shelf of the Gulf of Papua by rivers and by estuarine productivity is being oxidized and returned to the atmosphere as [CO2].”

The institute noted that researchers from more than 20 international institutions in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the U.S. participated in the study.

For complete details, see: http://www.aims.gov.au/pages/about/communications/backgrounders/20030616-wet-tropics-carbon-sink.html

**********

USDA OFFERS NEW INCENTIVES FOR

GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION AND CARBON STORAGE

USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced today (June 6) that for the first time, the USDA will give consideration to management practices that store carbon and reduce greenhouse gases in implementing forest and agriculture conservation programs.

“Farmers, ranchers and forestland owners can play a unique role in reducing the greenhouse gas intensity of the U.S. economy,” Veneman said. “Last year, President Bush requested that the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend ways to help reduce greenhouse gases and to increase carbon storage through targeted incentives for landowners. Today, I am pleased to announce a series of actions we are taking to meet the President’s challenge.”

As part of his strategy, President Bush in February 2002 committed to reducing America’s greenhouse gas intensity – the ratio of emissions to economic output – by 18 percent during the next decade.

The Department will invest almost $3.9 billion in agriculture and forest conservation on private land in 2004, an increase of $1.7 billion over 2001 levels. Due to the increase in conservation investments and a focus that includes carbon sequestration efforts, USDA estimates these actions will reduce and sequester a total of more than 12 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions (measured in carbon equivalent terms) annually by 2012. This amount is 12 percent of the Bush Administration’s national goal.

USDA will consider greenhouse gas management practices when evaluating applications for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Forest Land Enhancement Program (FLEP). Department actions to reduce greenhouse gases and store carbon will include financial incentives, technical assistance, demonstrations, pilot programs, education and capacity building, along with measurements to assess the success of these efforts.

Information on these programs is available at http://www.usda.gov

-- USDA Office of Communications, June 6, 2003

**********

Current Status Of Greenhouse Gas

Reduction Mandates worldwide

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in the Third Conference of Parties (COP3) to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that was held in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. Under the agreement, industrially advanced countries are to take the lead in combating global warming by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Under the Protocol developed countries are to reduce their average GHG emissions by 5 percent (compared to either 1990 or 1995 levels) for the first commitment period: 2008-2112. There are six categories of GHGs targeted for regulation under the Kyoto Protocol -- CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons), PFCs (perfluorocarbons), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Each GHG can be converted to a CO2 equivalent, which is a measure of how powerful a GHG is compared to CO2. GHG emissions are generally measured in terms of CO2 equivalents for purposes of meeting emission reduction targets.

Enforcement of the Kyoto protocol is not yet assured. Two conditions must be met: (1) the treaty must be ratified by at least 55 countries, and (2) the total amount of GHG emissions by those countries that have ratified the treaty should account for 55 percent or more of the emissions of all industrially developed nations, as measured in 1990. If these two conditions are met, the protocol will take effect 90 days after the date of confirmation by the UNFCCC secretariat.

To date, 110 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, meeting the first of the two requirements. Criteria 2 is still coming up short, however. GHG emissions by industrial countries that have ratified the pact currently total just 43.9 percent of the total from industrially developed nations.

The Russian Federation, which has not yet ratified the global environment accord, is the key to whether the Kyoto Protocol will be enforced. Russia has been slow to take action, although a decision on ratification is expected in October. The Protocol would enter into force 90 days after it has been ratified by Russia. Russia accounts for 17 percent of the industrial world’s total GHG emissions.

The United States, the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, has stated it will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, preferring a voluntary approach to reducing GHG intensity. According to the U.S. Global Climate Change Policy, the U.S. is targeting a voluntary reduction in CO2 intensity of 18 percent over the next 10 years, from 183 metric tons per million dollars of GDP in 2002 to 151 metric tons per million dollars of GDP in 2012.

Australia is the only other major industrialized country that has not ratified the treaty. Australia has established a Climate Action Partnership with the U.S. and several GHG emission reduction projects are being implemented under this partnership.

Little progress has been made in getting developing countries involved in the Kyoto Protocol framework. Developing countries, in a global climate change conference held in India last year, reiterated their determination to refuse to cut GHG emissions if doing so means their economic development will suffer.

-- Steve Watson <swatson@oznet.ksu.edu>

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Rich countries see higher

greenhouse gas emissions

A new UN report, titled Compilation and Synthesis of Third National Communications, confirms that the developed world, which stabilized its emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases during the 1990s, is likely to see these emissions rise by the end of the current decade.

Based on projections provided by the governments themselves, the report anticipates that the combined emissions of Europe, Japan, the U.S., and other highly industrialized countries could grow by 8 percent from 2000 to 2010, to about 17 percent over the 1990 level, despite domestic measures currently in place to limit them.

At the same time, the so-called transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe are starting to increase their emissions again as their economies recover. As a result, the developed world as a whole (highly industrialized plus transition countries) will see its emissions increase by 11 percent from 2000 to 2010 (10 percent over the 1990 level).

Developed countries saw their combined emissions actually fall during the 1990s, by 3 percent, due to a 37 percent decline in transition country emissions. They thus met the Climate Change Convention’s intermediate aim of keeping the group’s overall emissions at 1990 levels by 2000.

-- UNFCCC Media Information Office, June 3, 2003

For more information, see: http://unfccc.int

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Europe Begins Talks On

Emissions Trading Scheme

European Union lawmakers launched talks this week aimed at finalizing a bill to cap "greenhouse gas" emissions from big industry and start a scheme of emissions trading by 2005.

Parliament's lead member on the bill said he hoped to negotiate an agreement with EU governments within 10 days following a vote earlier this week by the assembly's environment committee tabling key changes to the law.

If the law is passed, by next March national governments will issue permits to refineries and major factories, setting a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they can emit. CO2 is the main gas covered by the Kyoto Protocol on tackling climate change.

Once the scheme comes into effect, in 2005, firms that reduce their CO2 will be able to sell their excess allowances to companies that exceed their cap, in what would be the world's first international greenhouse gas emissions trading market.

-- Reuters News Service, June 13, 2003

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MEETINGS OF INTEREST

Note: All dates are 2003 unless otherwise noted.

August 19

The Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting, Verification and Certification of GHG Emissions: Energy-Efficiency Projects Workshop

Seattle, Washington.

For information, see: http://www.iepec.org/workshop_vine.htm

October 16-17

CASMGS Carbon Measuring and Management Forum

Manhattan, Kansas

For more information, contact Scott Staggenborg at (785) 532-5833

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