|
4.6.4. Banking of Emissions Offsets
Article 12.10 of the Kyoto Protocol permits any certified emissions reduction
from the year 2000 (8 years prior to the first commitment period) to be used
to achieve compliance during the first commitment period under the CDM. This
provision could have the effect of encouraging participation by non-Annex B
countries and stimulating early implementation of activities that reduce emissions.
Recognizing the slow rate at which biomass activities sequester carbon compared
to the high rate at which they can discharge carbon, as well as the associated
advantages of early implementation of improved land-management activities, the
Parties could choose to permit this sort of banking for early credits under
Article 3.4 activities. This strategy might encourage early adoption of sustainable
land-management practices; it would also create additional credits that would
permit Annex B countries to more easily meet their commitments in the first
commitment period.
4.6.5. Capturing Both Increases and Decreases in Carbon
Stocks
Article 3.4 permits Parties to choose whether to include these additional activities
in meeting commitments during the first commitment period. Without appropriate
guidance or the adoption of a full and symmetrical accounting system (see Chapter
2 and Figure 4-5), a Party might be able
to select projects or activities that provide a net sink for carbon without
accounting for those that are a net source. This type of selection could encourage
adoption of desirable land-management activities in some places with no net
gain for the atmosphere if countervailing choices are made elsewhere.
A partial solution to this potential problem would be to adopt any additional
activities allowed for credit under Article 3.4 through a single decision that
required acceptance of all activities or none in one package. This approach
could ensure that a Party that chose to apply the decision to the first commitment
period would have to account for the net effect of all of the additional activities.
A full accounting approach for all changes in carbon stocks would also avoid
this problem.
4.6.6. Adjusting Credits from Changes in Carbon Stocks
The Kyoto Protocol currently treats all GHG flows equally, in CO2-equivalent
units: A ton of carbon is a ton of carbon, whether it is from fossil fuel combustion
or is sequestered by reforestation. An alternative approach would be to treat
different flows of carbon differently by giving partial, limited, or exaggerated
credit for some carbon flows with respect to others or by putting a cap on the
credits or debits available from a particular sink or source. Four reasons have
been suggested for choosing to treat different flows of carbon differently:
- Encouraging emissions reductions in other sectors
- Compensating for uncertainty in measurement
- Compensating for differences in permanence
- Compensating for leakage.
One could choose an adjustment factor that is greater or less than 1 to encourage
sequestration in the biosphere or to discourage it with respect to other mitigation
strategies. Such an approach could be applied to provide differential encouragement
for different activities. A system might be designed to reward improvements
with respect to uncertainty, permanence, or leakage. For example, providing
credits at the 90-percent confidence level for estimates of changes in carbon
stocks would reward improved accuracy in measurement with additional credits
(Canada, 1998). There is a risk that valuing different carbon flows differently
could lead to outcomes that are not economically efficient or environmentally
optimal.
|