01 Jul

Other Efforts to Fight Climate Change

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• REDD+

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1) REDD+

• Need of REDD+
  • Deforestation and forest degradation account for 17% of carbon emissions, more than the entire global transportation sector and second only to energy sector. Therefore, conservation of forests can play a very crucial role in controlling climate change.
• Introduction to REDD+
  • REDD+ is a climate change mitigation solution developed by parties to UNFCCC. It incentivizes developing countries to keep their forest standing by offering results-based payments for actions to reduce or remove forest carbon emissions.
    • The idea is that developing nations should be able to financially benefit from the ecosystem services that their forests provide, such as carbon storage and as reservoirs of biodiversity.
  • The payment is targeted at five activities:
    • Reducing Emissions from Deforestation
    • Reducing Emissions from forest degradation.
    • Conservation of carbon stocks
    • Sustainable management of forests
    • Enhancement of Carbon stocks.
  • REDD+ goes beyond simply deforestation and forest degradation and includes the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks.
    • In 2019, Brazil became one of the first countries to receive results-based aid.
    • In 2020, Uganda has become the first African country to submit the results for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) to the UNFCCC.
      • Uganda has now become eligible for results based payments.
      • In 2020, Uganda became eligible for REDD+ payments, the first African country to do so.

A) REDD+ IN UNFCCC

• First negotiated in UNFCCC 2005 (COP-11).
• Adopted at COP-13 in 2007 in Bail.
• In 2013, COP-19 produced at least seven decisions on REDD+, which are jointly known as the “Warsaw Framework on REDD-Plus“.
• And finally, the remaining decisions on REDD+ was completed at COP21 in 2015 and the UNFCC rulebook on REDD+ was completed. All countries were also encouraged to implement and support REDD+ in Article 5 of the Paris Agreement. This was part of the broader article that specified that all countries should take action to protect and enhance their greenhouse gas sinks and reservoirs (stores of sequestered carbon).
• UNFCCC requests All developing countries aiming to undertake REDD+ to develop the following elements:
  1. A national strategy or action plan;
  2. A national forest reference emission level and/or forest reference
  3. A national forest monitoring system for monitoring and reporting on REDD+ with if possible subnational monitoring

B) REDD AND REDD+

• REDD originally referred to “reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries” the title of the original document on REDD. It was superseded in the negotiation by REDD+.
• REDD+ refers to “reducing emissions from deforestation, and forest degradation in developing countries, and the role of conservation, sustainable management of forests, and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries“. This is the most recent elaborated terminology used by COP.

C) INDIA’S REDD+ STRATEGY (RELEASED IN AUG 2018)

• The strategy has been prepared by Indian Council for Forestry Research & Education (ICFRE), Dehradun.
• The strategy builds upon existing national circumstances which have been updated in line with India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, Green India Mission, and India’s NDC to UNFCCC.
• Key focus
  • Cooperation and involvement of the tribals, other forest dwelling communities and the society as a whole
• Significance
  • Reiterates India’s commitment to Paris Agreement on CC
  • It will help in conservation of forests and enhance productivity of forest ecosystem.
  • REDD+ strategy will help India fulfill its NDC commitment and contribute to the livelihood of the forest dependent population.

2) THE UN REDD PROGRAM (THE UN COLLABORATIVE PROGRAM ON REDUCING EMISSIONS FROM DEFORESTATION AND DEGRADATION IN A DEVELOPING COUNTRIES)

• It is a multilateral body which partners with developing countries by assisting them to develop the capacities needed to meet the UNFCCC REDD+ requirements.
  • It does so through a country based approach that provides advisory and technical support services tailored to national circumstances and needs.
• It is a collaborative initiative of FAO, UNDP, and UNEP. It also harnesses technical expertise of other UN

3)  CENTRAL AFRICAN FOREST INITIATIVE (CAFI)

• CAFI was founded in 2015 as a collaborative agreement between six Central African Countries – the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon – and six financial partners: the European Union, France, Norway, Germany, South Korea and the Netherlands.
  • It is based around the REDD+ mechanism developed by the parties to the UNFCCC.

 1. MITIGATION STRATEGIES

Key issues covered – Carbon Sequestration, Carbon Sink, Carbon Credit, Carbon Offset, Carbon Tax, and Geo- Engineering

 1) CARBON SEQUESTRATION

•  It is the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one of the methods of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the aim of fighting climate change.
• There can be two major types of carbon sequestration:
  • Biological:
    • Biological Carbon Sequestration is the storage of carbon dioxide in vegetation such as grasslands, or forests, as well as in soils and oceans.
      • Plant rich landscapes like forests, grasslands etc. capture 25% of the global carbon emissions.
      • Soil can store carbon in the form of Soil Organic Carbon.
        • Soil can also store carbon as carbonates.
      • Colder and nutrient rich part of ocean can absorb more carbon dioxide than warmer parts. Therefore, polar regions generally serve as carbon sink.
  • Geological Carbon Sequestration
    • It is the process of storing carbon dioxide in underground geologic formations, or rocks.
    • Naturally, Carbonates are created over thousands of years when carbon dioxide dissolved in water and percolates in soil, combining with calcium and magnesium minerals, forming ‘caliche‘ in desert and arid soil.
    • Artificially, CO2 captured from industrial, or any other sources may be injected into porous rocks for long-term storage.
      • Hydrodynamic Trapping: It refers to a time-dependent hydrogeological process where injected CO2 is effectively trapped by the existence of very long travel times to the surface.
      • Solubility Trap: CO2 dissolved in liquid like water or oil.
      • Mineral Carbonation: CO2 can be made to react to naturally occurring minerals to form stable compound which can stay like that for years (e.g. Calcium carbonate)
  • Technological Carbon Sequestration
    • These are the new ways being explored by scientists to capture and store carbon using innovative technologies and to make useful products out of it.
    • Graphene Production
    • Direct Air Capture – Capturing carbon directly from air using advanced technology plants.
      • For now the technology is highly expensive and energy intensive. But with more advancement in technologies, this may become a viable option.
    • Engineered Molecules – These molecules can change shape by creating new kinds of compounds capable of singling out and capturing carbon dioxide from the air.

1) CARBON SINK (GREEN AND BLUE CARBON)

• Green Carbon: It is the carbon which is stored by vegetation (forests, grasslands, etc.). It is basically biological carbon sequestration. Reforestation and Afforestation are mechanisms to enhance Green Carbon
• Blue Carbon: Carbon stored by coastal, aquatic or marine ecosystems. These include mangroves, seagrasses etc.
  • Coastal ecosystems are more efficient carbon sinks when compared to tropical rain forests.

2) CARBON CREDIT AND CARBON OFFSETTING (ALREADY DISCUSSED WITH MARKET BASED MECHANISM)

2) CARBON PRICING INCLUDING CARBON TAX

• Carbon Pricing is a method which captures the external cost of green house emissions – i.e. the losses to different sectors like agriculture, health, property etc. due to addition of Greenhouse gas in atmosphere. There are two major types of Carbon Pricing – Emission Trading System (or Cap and Trade System) and Carbon Tax.
• Advantages of Carbon Pricing:
  • Shifts the cost on polluters -> internalize the external cost of pollution
• Carbon tax is a potential alternative to the ‘cap and trade‘ method currently used by the Kyoto protocol to reduce the carbon emission.
  • A carbon tax aims to internalize the externality of climate change by setting a price on the carbon content of energy consumed or greenhouse gas emitted in the production of consumption of goods.
• Advantages of carbon taxes over ‘Quantitative limits’ or ‘Cap and trade’ system
  1. Avoids the problem of choosing a baseline : In a price approach, the natural baseline is a zero carbon tax.
  2. Better adaptation to element of uncertainty which pervades the science of climate
     • Quantitative limits are related to the stocks of greenhouse gas emissions, while the price limits are related to the flow of emissions.
  3. Less volatility and more predictability : From uncertainty (point 2) arises volatility. Carbon tax regime is likely to cause less volatility in the prices of carbon emission
  4. Less administrative arbitrariness – easier implementation – lack of manipulation
     • Quantity limiting policies are often accompanied by administrative arbitrariness and corruption through rent seeking. This sends of wrong signals to investors.
     • In a price based system, the investors has an assured long-term regulation to adapt to and can weigh in the costs involved.
  5. Addresses the problem of equity
     • Equity is the most contentious issue in any international negotiation on climate change mitigation either at the level of WTO or UNFCC.
     • The price based approach in the form of carbon tax makes it easier to implement the equity based international adjustments than the quantity based approach.
  6. Carbon tax will essentially be a Pigovian tax which balances the marginal costs and benefits of additional emissions, thereby internalizing the cost of environmental damage.
  7. Better understandability: the carbon tax is simpler to understand and therefore may be braced by more people
• Limitations of Global Carbon Tax
  • No CBDR: It penalizes incremental carbon emissions rather than those who have already spewed into the atmosphere since the Industrial revolution.
  • Taxes are part of national social contracts that emerge out of very specific conditions that can’t necessarily be replicated on a global scale.
• Has India imposed any carbon tax yet?
  • A carbon tax increases the price that consumers pay for Increase in fuel taxes as well as quadrupling of the coal cess is sometimes interpreted as a variant of a carbon tax.
  • Similarly, not decreasing the petrol/diesel prices according to the decrease in crude oil prices can also be seen as a method of imposition of carbon tax.

3) GEO-ENGINEERING

•  Introduction:
  • Definition: Geo-engineering is a theoretical concept which aims to modify and cool environment to defeat the global warming. It may involve reduction of Sunlight reaching earth or absorption of CO2 to reduce global warming (Carbon Capture Technologies).
  • Since the global community is looking for a Net Zero target by 2050, the Geo-engineering technologies are expected to play a key role in this.
• Reduction of sunlight reaching Earth:
  1. Stratospheric Aerosol Injection: Injecting the atmosphere with Sulphur/ Hydrogen Sulphide (copies volcanic effect and scatters sunlight).
  2. Putting Large Mirrors in Space – reduce the amount of sunlight reaching earth.
  3. Using Wind-Powered Motors to whiten the cloud -> by spraying water into the sky -> reflect solar radiation.
• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) (Or Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS)) refers to technologies that can capture CO2, at a source of emissions before it is released into atmosphere.
  • The process starts with capture of CO2 which undergoes a compression process to from a dense fluid. This eases the transport and storage of the captured
  • This dense fluid is transported via pipelines and then injected into the underground storage facilities. It can also be used as a raw material in other industrial processes such as bicarbonates.
• CDR takes the form of both natural means like afforestation or reforestation, and technologies like direct air capture where machines mimic trees by absorbing CO2 from their surrounding and storing it underground.
  • E.g. Fake Trees containing compounds which can react with CO2 to absorb it and store it in solid from.
• Other Carbon Capture Technologies
  1. Ocean Iron Fertilization: Seeding the Sea with Iron
     • Phytoplankton prefer iron and flourish in its presence, thus absorbing a lot of CO2.
• How significant is the role of CCS and CDR in achieving net-zero by 2050?
  • In IPCC AR6, there is no pathway to 1.5 degrees C that doesn’t use CDR.
• Limitations/Problems with these CCS and Geoengineering method:
  • CCS and CDR are still technologies under development without demonstrated feasibility at large scale despite decades of development.
    • It also suffers from other challenges like high energy requirements; high cost; challenges in the transport and long-term storage of carbon.
  • CDR methods like afforestation, reforestation, Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) are constrained by their need of land. It may aso hamper food and water security.