Forestry carbon sink advantage is large

According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the first implementation cycle of China's carbon emission trading market ended on December 31, 2021. In the first implementation period of the national carbon market, 2,162 key emitters in the power generation industry will be included, which will cover about 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2021, with a fulfillment rate of 99.5%.

Liu Youbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that since the launch of the online trading, the overall operation of the national carbon market has been stable, with enterprises increasing awareness of emission reduction, and the market activity has steadily increased.

"Carbon sink trading is the trading of virtual goods created by policy and regulatory constraints to offset anthropogenic carbon equivalents. From the perspective of the domestic market, it is still dominated by carbon emission quota (CEA) trading, supplemented by national certified voluntary emission reduction (CCER) trading." Chen Shaozhi, an expert on forestry economics at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, told reporters that the first batch of more than 2,000 power generation companies were allocated carbon emission quotas, making China's market the world's largest in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. "From the perspective of carbon quota price, the EU carbon price is about 60 euros/ton, while China's carbon price is 50 yuan/ton, which has a large space for future rise."

Carbon-negative technologies include afforestation/reforestation (forest carbon sinks), biological carbon sinks, direct air capture and enhanced weathering. Afforestation/reforestation technologies are the most economical negative emission technologies, with co2 removal costs ranging from us $10 to US $50 per tonne; Direct air capture is the most expensive, costing hundreds of dollars or more per ton to remove carbon dioxide; Biomass + CO2 capture and storage falls somewhere in the middle, with co2 removal costing between $100 and $200 per tonne.

Chen shaozhi said that China's terrestrial ecological carbon sequestration capacity is large, and forestry carbon sequestration effect is good. From 2010 to 2016, China's terrestrial ecosystems absorbed about 1.11 billion tons of carbon annually, accounting for 45 percent of man-made carbon emissions during the same period, according to an estimate by the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In addition, important forest regions in China, especially in southwest China and northeast China in summer, have made major contributions to carbon sequestration, which is also the result of China's huge investment in restoring natural forest vegetation and strengthening plantation cultivation in the past 40 years.

Market development encountered bottleneck

At present, China's forest carbon sequestration has begun to produce real economic benefits. Take Saihanba as an example, Chang Weiqiang, deputy chief of forestry department of Saihanba Mechanical Forest Farm, told reporters that up to now, Saihanba mechanical Forest farm first issued afforestation carbon sink certification to reduce emissions of 182,750 tons, has completed sales of 162,756 tons, realizing income of 3.14 million yuan.

Saihanba is located in the northernmost part of Hebei Province and belongs to the southern edge of Otindag Sandy Land. More than 50 years ago, the state set up a mechanical forest farm here, artificial afforestation, ecological restoration. Through the efforts of several generations, saihanba sandy land, which used to be dusty and sparsely populated, has become a forest sea of one million mu, and its forest coverage rate has increased to 80 percent. The huge carbon sequestration benefits of saihanba plantation have become a vivid example of "clear water and green mountains are gold and silver mountains".

Chen shaozhi said that there are still bottlenecks to be broken in increasing forestry carbon sequestration trading. The policy system and technical methods are not mature and perfect, which is a big problem to be solved urgently.

At present, the most important dilemma is that the top-level design is not clear, the policy is uncertain, the carbon trading market is not mature enough, leading to producers, operators and relevant institutions at a loss what to do, carbon sequestration afforestation projects have certain risks. Relevant departments have issued relevant documents on climate change, and also issued relevant operating documents on carbon sinks. Although these documents put forward the importance of carbon sequestration forestation, they lack effective legal enforcement.

In June 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Interim Measures for the Management of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading, which determined the basic principles for the management of government-led voluntary Emission reduction trading system. On this basis, experts in related fields and industries successively formulated and recorded a number of CCER methodologies. Carbon sink accounting, monitoring and measurement, verification and certification mechanisms and related management methods have been established, and a market system for carbon sink elements has been initially established. Some entities and institutions reflect that the existing carbon sink accounting methods are obscure and difficult to understand and operate.

The low forest stock is also an urgent problem to be solved. Among the actual stands in China, 43% of the stands per hectare have not reached 20% of their productive potential, 26% of them have reached 20% to 50%, and only 31% of them have reached more than 50%.

The lack of comprehensive understanding of forestry carbon sequestration also restricts the sustainable development of China's forestry carbon sequestration trade. On the one hand, forest plants are the storage and buffer of carbon dioxide, so improving forest quality and accumulation is the fundamental way to increase forest carbon sink. On the other hand, forests release greenhouse gases when they breathe, die, rot or burn. Deforestation, forest degradation and forest fires can turn forests into huge sources of carbon emissions, rapidly releasing large amounts of biological carbon stored in forests into the atmosphere. Therefore, through the scientific and orderly management of forest, effectively improve the management level, continue to improve the amount of carbon sequestration and carbon sequestration capacity of forest, prolong the fixed time of carbon dioxide in the forest, maximum storage of carbon. Some operators and the public only focus on how much carbon sink existing forestry can sell, but ignore the future potential of forest carbon sink and how to obtain more carbon sink.

Make a concerted effort to solve the problem

"To promote the sustainable development of China's forestry carbon sequestration trading, we need to make efforts from all sides." Chen Shaozhi said.

After the launch of the national carbon market in July 2021, the new mechanism has not been restarted, except that the original CCER registered projects can be traded under specified conditions. At present, there is basically no forestry carbon sink project trading. He suggested, restart CCER system and market transaction as soon as possible, increase the market share of forestry carbon sequestration form positive incentives, and will be more CCER outside of a variety of scenarios, used to offset the quota allowed around the peak in carbon carbon neutral constraints, develop a variety of forestry carbon sequestration products, explore the forestry carbon sinks into the necessity and feasibility of ecological compensation mechanism, We will establish and improve financing mechanisms for forest carbon sinks.

"Global forest carbon storage accounts for about 77% of global vegetation, and forest soil carbon storage accounts for about 39% of global soil. The significant carbon sink capacity of natural ecosystems has been fully confirmed, especially forests, grasslands and wetlands, which have great potential to play ecological service functions and improve carbon sinks. The development of carbon sequestration forestry has many advantages such as low investment, high environmental protection benefit, good safety performance and renewable, which is incomparable to physical and chemical carbon sequestration or other emission reduction approaches. We should make the development of carbon sequestration forestry a top priority in achieving carbon neutrality." Chen Shaozhi said.

Experts suggest that afforestation, reforestation, restoration of degraded ecosystems and the establishment of agroforestry systems are ways to enhance the carbon absorption function of forests. Forests can be managed sustainably, protecting the carbon stored in existing forest ecosystems and reducing their emissions to the atmosphere. Carbon substitution measures will also need to be explored by replacing energy-intensive materials with durable wood forest products, using renewable wood fuels (such as energy plantations) and recycling logging residues as fuel.

In terms of relevant scientific research and technical support, it is necessary to study the capacity of China's ecosystem to reduce emissions and increase sinks, its cost-effectiveness and its contribution to international implementation at different scales, strengthen data resource sharing, deepen China's ecosystem carbon measurement, and establish a national carbon measurement system. We will strengthen ecosystem positioning observation and environmental monitoring, establish a carbon flux observation network in China, and improve the ability of climate change prediction, early warning and emergency response. At the same time, quantitative assessment of the role of forest, grassland, wetland, ocean, soil, frozen soil and other ecosystem activities in reducing emissions and increasing sinks provides a scientific basis for effectively managing the effect of ecosystem carbon sink on carbon peak and carbon neutralization.

Chang Weiqiang tells a reporter, sihanba mechanical forest farm is embarked on a second monitor period (2015-2020) during YingZaoLin carbon emissions reductions (1.2 million tons) of examination and approval and certified work, positive for ring by the Beijing municipal development and reform commission, Beijing, will be carbon carbon sink trade in Beijing market, strive to maximize sihanba carbon sequestration benefits.