Region Archives: International

For the first time in decades, German forests have become a source of carbon rather than a sink. A large-scale government survey, which collected data throughout 2022 and was released Tuesday, showed that drought, storms and bark beetle infestations have caused so much damage that the nation’s forests now release more carbon than they absorb. Trees absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, and release it back into the atmosphere during decomposition. The study, commissioned by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, found that the loss of living biomass was greater than the increase. The carbon stock held by forests decreased by 41.5 million tons since 2017, it said. [END]

LISBON, Portugal — For three days in mid-September, wildfires rapidly tore through parts of Portugal… cutting off the top half of the country. …Few people in Europe and the US would have realized that some of their everyday products may have played a role in making these fires worse. Certain toilet paper, tissue and office paper brands are made with materials from eucalyptus trees, a non-native species to Portugal. The eucalyptus globulus is an ideal tree for commercial cultivation because it’s faster-growing, has a larger amount of fiber and produces more pulp than most other species. The problem is eucalyptus trees are particularly flammable. …Proportional to its size, Portugal has more eucalyptus than any country in the world. But in California, the eucalyptus tree has been naturalized. …A debate over the role of eucalyptus in wildfires is brewing, with some studies showing they have little influence in making blazes worse.

Forests with a greater diversity of trees are more productive—potentially leading to greater efficiency in capturing planet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, a new study reveals. Researchers found that trees that grow quickly, and capture carbon faster, tend to be smaller and have shorter lifespans, leading to lower carbon storage and faster release back into the atmosphere. Slower growing species live longer and grow larger, tending to capture more atmospheric carbon—particularly in the setting of more diverse forests. Analyzing 3.2 million measurements from 1,127 species of trees across the Americas—from southern Brazil to northern Canada—an international team of experts mapped life expectancies for trees ranging from 1.3 to 3,195 years. …Co-author Dr. Adriane Esquivel-Muelbert, Brazilian researcher based at the University of Birmingham, commented, “Tree growth and lifespan trade-offs are crucial for the planet’s carbon balance.

Brazil is proposing a fund that would pay countries to protect tropical forests that are crucial to curbing climate change. It would generate returns, too. …Enter the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, a new fund that Brazil is pitching to the world and that would pay developing countries a fee for every hectare of forest they maintain. The project, first presented at the global climate summit in Dubai, last November, is now in its final stages of design and it could ultimately pay out $4 billion a year to protect forests. The fund’s mission is to flip the economics that have long fueled deforestation… Farming, logging and other industries. …Brazil’s fund would effectively pay countries for services that tropical forests now perform for free, such as storing planet-warming carbon and regulating rain patterns. …Brazil envisions a $125 billion fund. [to access the full story a NY Times subscription may be required].

In related Associated Press news: G20 environment ministers back funding for forest conservation

One of the largest sawmills in Australia will turn wood waste into enough electricity to run the plant and export to the grid in a possible return to a situation that ended last century. OneFortyOne is spending about $30 million on a new boiler and steam turbine at the Jubilee Sawmill in Mount Gambier as part of a $90 million site upgrade. The company says the renewable biomass power generation project will generate 43,800 megawatt hours of electricity per year when work is complete in 2026 — enough to run the plant and either sell the remainder to the power network or use it to charge future electric machinery. “The turbine will generate enough electricity to power the entire Jubilee site from renewable wood fibre,” chief executive Wendy Norris said. “That helps us to achieve over 70 per cent of our 2030 emissions reduction target…”

Wildfires are burning through the carbon budget that humans have allocated themselves to limit global heating, a study shows. The authors said this accelerating trend was approaching – and may have already breached – a “critical temperature threshold” after which fires cause significant shifts in tree cover and carbon storage. …Forests are going up in smoke in Brazil, the US, Greece, Portugal and even the Arctic Circle amid the Earth’s two hottest years in recorded history. Each fire has a double impact on the global climate: first, by emitting carbon from the burned trees, and second, by reducing the capacity of forests to absorb carbon dioxide. …Other research showed the Amazon is undergoing a “critical slowing down”, with more than a third of the rainforest struggling to recover from drought after four supposedly “one-in-a-century” dry spells in less than 20 years. These compounding impacts are turning forests from carbon sinks into carbon sources.

Forest carbon credits, which pay governments and private landowners to conserve carbon-rich forests as a way to slow climate change, face mounting criticism for being less effective than advertised. Brazil’s top climate official is pushing back on their dubious reputation… In Brazil, fighting deforestation is synonymous with fighting climate change. The country has about 60% forest cover and is home to the majority of the Amazon rainforest. More than half of Brazil’s emissions are tied to changes in land use and deforestation… Companies, governments and others can sell forest carbon credits to groups looking to offset their own emissions. But the credits have not always worked as intended: Investigations have pointed to flawed accounting and exaggerated claims.

Human activities have directly and indirectly fueled the spread of zoonotic diseases. Long-distance travel, for example, has transported not just people but diseases to new locations… Our decimation of the environment is another cause of the increase. Deforestation means humans can more easily venture into habitats where they might encounter animals that are acting as disease reservoirs, and the destruction of biodiverse areas for large-scale monoculture farms allows pathogens to spread more quickly. Deforestation in the Amazon basin, which brings human settlements to the edge of the rainforest, increases malaria transmission, with disease risk increasing by 3.3% for every 10% increase in forest clearing. And in sub-Saharan Africa, irrigation schemes, which create standing water, as well as dam construction, have also intensified the malaria threat.

Researchers are warning against a recent proposal by Australia’s forestry industry to remove trees from native forests, potentially including national parks, to claim carbon credits… Forestry Australia’s proposal includes activities like adaptive harvesting and forest thinning in national parks, state forests, and private land, with land managers being rewarded with carbon credits… and argues that the method would make ecosystems more resilient and help fight climate change. However, decades of scientific research suggest that the proposal could have the opposite effect… Studies show that practices like “adaptive harvesting” and “forest thinning” can make forests more fire-prone, degrade forest health, and release carbon during tree removal, undermining any intended climate benefits. Moreover, Australia’s declining biodiversity and emissions-reduction goals are at risk if native forests are harvested further.

Changes that used to take place over hundreds or even 1000 years are now taking place in a lifetime… Rather than mutely accepting that climate change will transform our landscapes for the worse, Parks Victoria is entering into a new approach in collaboration with the United States National Park Service and Geological Survey. There, officials have adopted a new approach to climate change: the Resist, Accept, Direct (RAD) framework… In the local version, rangers will look to triage Victoria’s landscapes and locations into areas where resistance can be strengthened; areas where we have to accept that changes are unstoppable (for example coastal inundation, with sea level rises unlikely to retreat); and areas that have already changed.

The development of a carbon credit market in Việt Nam faces significant challenges, primarily due to unclear regulations. While businesses recognise the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and are eager to participate in the market, they are hindered by management and monitoring systems that require further improvement…  The draft project for developing Việt Nam’s carbon market from 2025 to 2028 outlines a pilot programme set to run nationwide. By 2029, the market is expected to officially launch, with preparations underway to connect it to regional and global platforms… The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) project helped the forestry sector achieve nearly 57 million tonnes of CO2 emissions reductions from 2014 to 2018.

LONDON — New independently verified figures from the Wood Recyclers’ Association (WRA) have shown the big part the waste wood industry has to play in reducing carbon emissions. The figures have revealed that waste wood biomass – which makes up roughly two thirds of the UK market for waste wood – saved almost three-quarters of a million (701,000) tonnes of carbon emissions in 2023 when compared to the likely displaced energy generation. These savings could be increased to 3.6 million tonnes of carbon savings if these plants were fitted with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). This could represent 16% of the government’s target to capture 23MtCO2/year by 2035. …The carbon data represents the culmination of two years of work by the WRA’s Net Zero working group, which aimed to quantify the carbon benefits that the waste wood sector provides in addition to its contribution to the circular economy.