• Australian Greenhouse Office Home Page - Click here and follow the links to find out more about Australian Greenhouse Office programs, designed to reduce greenhouse emissions.

• AGO Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program - The Greenhouse Gas Abatement Program (GGAP) is a major Commonwealth Government initiative to assist Australia in meeting its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The objective of GGAP is to reduce Australia's net greenhouse gas emissions by supporting activities that are likely to result in substantial emission reductions or substantial sink enhancement, particularly in the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol (2008-2012). $400 million has been allocated to the Program between 2000-01 to 2003-04.

• $7.35 million for ethanol plant in north Queensland - The Federal Government will provide $7.35 million for an ethanol project based at the Mossman Central Sugar Mill, the Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Warren Truss, announced today 6 April 2001

• Environment Australia – Developing a national emissions trading scheme for Australia - As a result of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Kyoto in December 1997, developed countries agreed in principle to accept greenhouse gas emission targets (often referred to as emission caps). These agreements are included in a treaty called the Kyoto Protocol. Australia negotiated a target of 108% of 1990 emissions, to be achieved on an annual average basis over the years 2008 to 2012 (referred to as the commitment period). Australia signed the Protocol in April 1998, but has not yet ratified it.

• BioEnergy Australia - Formed in July 1997 by the Energy Research and Development Corporation, in collaboration with RIRDC and the Australian Greenhouse Office * Provide information on industry participants and activities * Assess the impact of competition reform, land rehabilitation and other relevant issues within the Federal/State arena on biomass energy activities * Develop and implement a strategic plan to realise opportunities for bioenergy in Australia * Broker and facilitate the development of jointly funded biomass projects * Promote the benefits of and seek additional funding for membership of Bioenergy Australia

• Queensland Emissions Trading Forum - The Queensland Emissions Trading Forum is a non profit organisation that was founded in April 2000 to develop an internet-based emissions trading simulation that would provide participants with a practical insight into the operation of alternative greenhouse gas emissions trading regimes.

• Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Greenhouse Accounting - The CRC is an unincorporated independent collaborative research and development venture between nine prominent Australian institutions. It was established in 1999 for seven years under the Commonwealth Government's competitive R&D CRC Program. Our administrative head office is located in Canberra.

Australian Publications

• Australian Greenhouse Office – Frequently Asked Questions - General Questions, Carbon sinks and the Kyoto Protocol, Trading questions

• Emissions Trading Discussion Paper Series - Australian Greenhouse Office Encouraging Early Greenhouse Abatement Action, Discussion Papers 1, 2, 3 &4, Centre for International Economics Report and Further Resources.

• Greenhouse Trading - A report of an emissions trading working group convened by the NWS Department of Energy 1998. An operational specification for the phased introduction of a nation-wide greenhouse emissions-trading framework for Australia.

• Carbon credit markets - ANU Forestry Market Report 12 June 2000. Primarily for small forest growers. This market report Looks at the current situation on carbon credit markets and trade from the viewpoint of small scale growers. It also gives stumpage prices recently received by growers in Australia.

• Carbon Products and Energy from Wood - This paper will consider the effective utilisation of forest and saw mill residues and other low value wood to make charcoal, activated carbon and energy.

• Developing a Market in Biodiversity Credits - One vision of a future rural economy sees landholders receiving payments, not only for the commodities they produce but also for the environmental services that they provide by managing their properties in a particular manner. One method of achieving this is would be through Government funded stewardship payments, but a more interesting alternative would be the development of markets whereby landholders could trade not only carbon sequestration credits, but also salinity control credits and even biodiversity credits.

• Carbon Credits from Forestry - questions and answers for rural land owners (on file) A discussion prepared by Queensland Government agencies January 2001

• Implications for Small Scale Forestry of a Proposed Market for Trading Carbon Sequestration Credits from Forests in New South Wales Australia - This presentation discusses the technical underpinnings required to support trading of carbon credits generated from planted forests to offset emissions as a means of satisfying limitations agreed under the Kyoto Protocol. A carbon accounting standard and trading model have been designed to accommodate a range of forestry interests including large and small scale forestry systems managed for timber and non-timber values. Opportunities and challenges for small scale forestry with reference to policy development are considered. Australian

Newsletters & Articles

• Carbon Bank Australia -CarbonBank produces a free monthly newsletter. The first few pages of each newsletter summarise some of the main stories in the past month. The last page provides links to further news articles and press releases. CarbonBank can e-mail you the newsletter each month. To subscribe to the newsletter contact vbryant@theitgroup.com Alternatively, you can view each newsletter page by clicking on the links.

• Carbon Trader - “The worlds leading library, reporter and commercial services, intermediary within the environmental commerce market.”

• Hancock Launches ‘Hancock New Forests Australia’ for Carbon Investors - The Hancock Natural Resource Group (HNRG) and Hastings Fund Management have launched a $200M capital raising effort for Hancock New Forests Australia Pty Ltd (HNFA) to develop a portfolio of newly planted Australian native tree species on previously cleared marginal farm land. These reforestation projects will be managed as a carbon pool to make carbon sequestration credits available to investors.

International Web Sites

• CarbonCredEx.com - The Exchange offers: • The venue for the exchange of carbon credits between Emitters, Investors and Growers • Co-ordinates the sale of carbon credits • Certifies & Guarantees the existence of the carbon credits • Locates Emitters and Growers • Develops Growers • Directory of all Carbon Credit and GHG related Buyers & Sellers • World-wide Directory of Forests for Sale • World-wide Directory of Land for Sale • World-wide Directory of Forestry related Products and Services

• International Emissions Trading Association - The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) is a non-profit organization created in June 1999 to establish a functional international framework for trading greenhouse gas emission reductions. Our membership includes leading international companies from across the carbon trading cycle. IETA members seek to development an emissions trading regime that results in real and verifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions balancing economic efficiency with environmental integrity and social equity.

• Carbon Trader - “The worlds leading library, reporter and commercial services, intermediary within the environmental commerce market.”

International Publications

• 5th UNCTAD/Earth Council Policy Forum on Trade and Climate Change (Rio Policy Forum) - The State of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Market. 29-31 August 2001, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

• UK Emissions Trading Scheme - Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs 2001. The Government is setting up a UK emissions trading scheme - a voluntary scheme that will start in April 2002. This will allow UK business and other organisations to get early experience of emissions trading. When it starts it will be the world's first economy-wide greenhouse gas trading system.

International Newsletters & Articles

• Carbon Monitor Newsletters, March 02 - January 02 - December 01 - November 01 - September 01 - July 01 - March 01 - January 01

Carbon Sequestration & Sinks

Australian Web Sites

• Australia National Greenhouse Gas Inventory - Australian Greenhouse Office. Australia has produced an annual inventory of national greenhouse gas emissions since 1990 as part of commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. - These inventories provide a baseline from which we are able to monitor and review response action and develop projections of greenhouse gas emissions. The 1999 National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, released in April 2001, provides the latest report on Australia's greenhouse gas emissions. This inventory incorporates improvements in data collection methods that have been used to update emission estimates in the 1990-1999 inventories.

• National Carbon Accounting System - Australian Greenhouse Office. The overall aim of the NCAS is to provide a complete accounting and forecasting capability for human-induced sources and sinks of greenhouse gas emissions from Australian land-based systems for developing an optimum greenhouse policy response to requirements of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its instruments.

• Bush for Greenhouse - linking industry and landholders. Bush for Greenhouse is an initiative of the Prime Minister’s greenhouse package Safeguarding the Future: Australia’s Response to Climate Change. Funding of $5.5 million has been allocated to the program over five years.

• Greenfleet - specialises in reducing the environmental impacts of transport by planting native trees to offset current CO2 emissions

Australian Publications

• Carbon Assessment Model for Forests (CAMFor) - Australian Greenhouse Office Excel Version 3.31, July 2000
  • How to use CAMFor - A model for tracking the carbon associated with a stand of trees. CAMFor calculates the carbon flows associated with a stand of trees, including the wood products made from wood harvested from that stand. It calculates the carbon in the various tree, debris, soil and product components, and the carbon exchanged with the atmosphere, for several hundred years -- through thinnings, multiple rotations, and fires.

   

• Integrating Carbon Sequestration with Forest Enterprises - This paper presents an outline of the potential benefits and costs to forest growers from carbon trading, and introduces a draft Carbon Accounting Standard being prepared by several forest companies, state and federal agencies to support an early voluntary carbon trading market, to commence on the Sydney Futures Exchange late 2000. Management strategies for optimising carbon sequestration, and integrating carbon with wood production are discussed.

• Usage And Life Cycle Of Wood Products - Jaakko Pöyry Consulting Has Developed A Methodology For Assessing The Contribution That The Use And Accumulation Of Wood Products Makes To The Size Of The Carbon Pool. The Carbon Model Uses Available Statistics On Log Flows From The Forests And Estimates The Carbon Content Of The Various Wood Products Processed (E.G. Sawn Timber, Plywood, Pulp And Paper And Woodchips).

• Carbon Sinks and Biofuels – Silviculture in the Greenhouse - The concept of vegetation sinks, carbon credits and emissions trading has attracted widespread political, media and industry support. Unfortunately, some fundamental conceptual and accounting problems remain uncorrected in the international conventions, and diminish the attraction carbon credits hold for forest growers – small private growers at least.

• Carbon accounting and emissions trading related to bioenergy, wood products and carbon sequestration workshop - IEA Bioenergy is an international, collaborative research programme on Bioenergy (www.ieabioenergy.com). The primary goal of IEA Bioenergy Task 38 ("Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems") is to investigate all processes involved in the use of bioenergy and land-use systems, on a full fuel-cycle basis, with the aim of assessing overall greenhouse gas balances.

• Relative CO2 Emissions from Fired Power Station Types - The CO2 emissions (and power costs) of several recent biomass-fired power-station (PS) proposals & options are compared with the incremental costs and CO2-effects of getting the same extra amount of power from an existing black coal PS in the NSW Hunter Valley. The live-Excel format of this report aims to make all data & calculations transparent to facilitate specific numerical review & comment from interested parties.

• Relative CO2 Emissions from Power Stations Fired by Wood or Coal - Comments on the Peter Barnes' Model July 2001 Dr Phil Polglase (CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products) Mr Wes Stein (CSIRO Energy Technology) with input from Drs Keryn Paul, John Raison, Miko Kirschbaum and Paul Fung (CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products) Using correct parameter values in the model, and an appropriate and legal, renewable forest system in NSW, it is shown that burning coal releases about 8 times more CO2 into the atmosphere than a forest managed for sawn timber and where wastes and residues are used for power generation. Recent overseas studies have shown that the net emission of CO2 from a coal-fired PS is about 30 times that from a wood-fired PS (DTI, 1999).

• Land-use Change in Australia and the Kyoto Protocol - Clive Hamilton and Lins Vellen The Australia Institute. This paper uses the official inventories to describe the comprehensive emissions situation for Australia. In the process it discusses the various methodological and data uncertainties associated with measuring emissions from land-use change.

International Web Sites

• The Role of Boreal Forests and Forestry in the Global Carbon Budget - International Science Conference May 8 to 12, 2000 List of presentations given to the conference

• Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems - IEA Bioenergy is an international, collaborative research programme on Bioenergy (www.ieabioenergy.com). The primary goal of IEA Bioenergy Task 38 ("Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems") is to investigate all processes involved in the use of bioenergy and land-use systems, on a full fuel-cycle basis, with the aim of assessing overall greenhouse gas balances.
  • Workshop Proceedings, List of Publications, and selected models.

   

• Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center - CDIAC responds to data and information requests from users from all over the world who are concerned with the greenhouse effect and global climate change. CDIAC's data holdings include records of the concentrations of carbon dioxide and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea level.

International Publications

• Carbon sequestration in afforestation and sustainable forest management - European Forest Institute. A presentation of a general evaluation tool and generic system for carbon sequestration in afforestation and sustainable forest management.

• CO2 Science Magazine - A weekly review and repository of scientific research findings pertaining to carbon dioxide and climate change.

• The Heat is Online - ) Origins of Fossil Fuel Disinformation Campaign. From the 1991 "Ice Campaign" run by the coal and utility industries to the Marshall Institute’s bogus "Study" of 1998 (which was designed to resemble a National Academy of Sciences document), the fossil fuel lobby and its ideological supporters have waged a relentless campaign of deception and disinformation to confuse people about the reality of warming-driven climate change.

• Results of the global forest resources assesment - Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY Rome, Italy, 12-16 March 2001 “World Deforestation is Slowing Down”

• Field Tests of Carbon Monitoring Methods in Forestry Projects - In late 1995, a field test was conducted in the Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, Belize, in collaboration with staff and crews from the Programme for Belize (PfB). The primary objectives were: 1. Test methods, procedures and equipment as described in Monitoring Carbon Changes in Forestry and Agroforestry Projects. 2. Determine the time requirements for each portion of the field measurements and estimate the costs of plot location, establishment, monitoring, relocation and re-measurement. 3. Measure a minimum of five permanent sample plots in the carbon sequestration project area. 4. Familiarize PfB crews with carbon inventory methods and procedures. 5. Identify appropriate stratification criteria, stratify project area using SPOTView maps and digitize this data using MapInfo. 6. Test the relocation and verification of a minimum of two plots. 7. Prepare a preliminary description of the overall approach, sampling design, equipment and manpower required to carry out an inventory in January-April 1996.

• From Theory to Practice: Increasing Carbon Stores through Forest Management - By Laurie A. WAYBURN,. Forests are increasingly recognized as playing a key role in reducing carbon dioxide, the primary "global warming" gas. Creating a market for this service takes three main ingredients: a market framework, demand from willing buyers and supply from willing sellers.

International Articles

• Biodiversity Gives Carbon Sinks a Boost By Cat Lazaroff - The more diverse an ecosystem, the better it can serve to absorb carbon dioxide - a potent greenhouse gas - from the atmosphere, a new study suggests. The research has important implications for ongoing international negotiations over the best way to address global climate change, and the role that so called carbon sinks should play.

• Allegations That New Deforestation Estimates Are Flawed -This Briefing Note has been prepared by the World Resources Institute in response to the launch of the Forest Resources Assessment 2000. It comments on the methodology and principal findings of the new FAO report and makes the following observations.

• Panel Tells Bush Global Warming Worsening - By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE with ANDREW C. REVKIN WASHINGTON, June 6 - A panel of top American scientists declared today that global warming was a real problem and was getting worse, a conclusion that may lead President Bush to change his stand on the issue as he heads next week to Europe, where the United States is seen as a major source of the air pollution held responsible for climate change.

• Peugeot Creates First Large-Scale Carbon Sink By Planting 10 Million Trees To Combat The Greenhouse Effect - Jean-Martin Folz, Chairman of Peugeot SA, and Frederic Saint-Geours, General Manager Peugeot, announced today that a carbon sink will be created in Mato Grosso state, in the tropical forest of Brazil.

The information contained on this page does not necessarily reflect the views of PFNQ