2009.07.20 -The Day- Cleaner Air Could Be As Close As Nearest Tree Press

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Cleaner Air Could Be As Close As Nearest Tree 
Environmental groups say better managed parks, forests can fight climate change 

The Day, New London, CT

By Judy Benson      Published on 7/20/2009 
 
The Northeast doesn't need to look to the tropical rain forests or new, complex and untested carbon sequestration technologies to get some of the carbon dioxide released by cars, homes, industries and agriculture out of the atmosphere.

There's a much simpler solution, say three environmental groups. The region, they contend, just needs more of its own trees and forests to absorb heat-trapping carbon dioxide and offset the effects of climate change. Even a relatively small state like Connecticut, with more and better-managed trees along city streets and in parks and forests, has the potential to capture and keep significant amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, the groups say.

”It's pretty simple, and it has the additional benefit of improving air quality, water quality and biodiversity,” said Ellen Hawes, forest policy analyst for Environment Northeast, one of the three groups. While much of the focus on the role of trees and forests in mitigating climate change has been on tropical rain forests, “we need to look at our own forests,” Hawes said. She noted that 12 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from New England is already being absorbed by the six-state region's trees and forests.

The proposal, announced last week, came in a joint statement from the three groups - the Maine Department of Conservation; the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, an independent environmental research organization; and Environment Northeast, a nonprofit advocacy group with an office in Connecticut.

They recommend that Connecticut and the nine other Northeastern states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, make financial incentives available to owners of forest land to prevent its development and keep it as forest, to better manage existing forestland, and urge cities, towns and schools to plant and maintain trees in parks and along streets.

The financial incentives would come from the power plants required to participate in the RGGI auctions, which began in September. In the RGGI program, large emitters of greenhouse gases purchase carbon dioxide emissions allowances. The program's purpose is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global climate change by offering utilities financial incentives to reduce emissions and requiring them to meet goals for gradual cuts.

In addition to purchasing emissions allowances, the utilities can also purchase offset credits by investing in four different programs that reduce greenhouse gases from agriculture, landfills, buildings and power generation, or in tree planting on vacant land.

The new proposal adds conservation and management of existing forests and tree planting and maintenance in urban areas to that list, providing a potential new financial incentive for private landowners, local land trust and municipal governments to keep their lands leafy.

Hawes said details of how the credits would be formulated and sold would have to be worked out by the RGGI board, which comprises representatives of all 10 states. There are well-accepted formulas, she said, to determine the amount of carbon dioxide a living tree sequesters, but not so for calculating the amount sequestered as a tree dies and decays but remains in a forest.

Jonathan Schrag, executive director of RGGI, said the demand at the first five RGGI auctions for carbon credits has been robust, generating about $366 million for the 10 states, indicating that the addition of a new category of offset credits could be attractive to investors.

It's important, he stressed, that any new forest and tree credits be based on formulas that are “verifiable and real.”