Greenhouse Gas Action Plans and Registries

Richard Birdsey

USDA Forest Service

Managing the atmosphere by managing emissions and ecosystems.

The United States Plan for Reducing Greenhouse Gases

The National Greenhouse Gas Registry• In 2002, the President directed Secretaries of Energy

and Agriculture to revise guidelines for reporting• Registry may support a market for transferable credits• Take into account emerging domestic and international

approaches

Implementation• Program is voluntary• Develop new targeted incentives for carbon

sequestration and greenhouse gas reductions• Research and development

Regional Initiatives on Climate Change

(from the Pew Center)

State-level Climate Action Plans

(from the Pew Center)

Key Elements of National and State Greenhouse Gas Action Plans

National States/regions

Voluntary* Mandatory

Incentive basis Emissions allowances assigned

Limited emissions trading Active emissions trading*

Emissions reduction and sequestration*

Mostly emissions reduction

*Chicago Climate Exchange

Who Cares About Carbon Management?(some examples)

• States, e.g. Maine, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, many others

• Forest products industry• Electricity producers• Conservation Organizations (e.g. TNC)• National Arbor Day Foundation• City of Baltimore • Chicago Climate Exchange

– Energy producers, automobile manufacturers, oil companies, many other industries

– Farmers, private landowners and “aggregators

Need for Carbon Monitoring Decision-support Tools

• Basic methodology is available but not necessarily accessible or easily used

• Transaction costs for monitoring, reporting, and verifying may be high relative to the value of carbon credits

• Simple, transparent, and easy-to-use models can be developed from existing methodology

Examples of Terrestrial Carbon Management and

Monitoring Decision-support

Tools

Tree/stand models

• FVS

• AMORPHYS

• UFORE

• CORRIM

Decision support:

• COLE

• COMET-VR

• CQUEST

• FVS

• GHG inventory

Extensive data:

• FIA/FHM

• Remote Sensing

• Air sampling

Landscape data:

• Biometrics

• Remote sensing

Intensive data:

• CO2 flux

• Meteorology

• Field experiments

Ecoregion models:

• FORCARB

• CASA

• LANDIS

• PnET

• Century

Carbon manager

Scale up

Decision Support “Roadmap” for Terrestrial Carbon Management

Observations Modeling Decision support