Measuring Carbon One Tree at a Time
The Director of CCI’s Global Carbon Measurement Program Combines High and Low Tech to Place a Value on Forests
Dr. D. James Baker is the director of CCI’s Global Carbon Measurement Program, which works with government partners, including Cambodia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kenya, and Tanzania, to develop projects that enable local communities to be compensated for preserving and regrowing forests.
A physicist and oceanographer, Dr. Baker was administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during the Clinton Administration. He is a member of both the U.S. Commission on Climate and Tropical Forests and the World Bank’s Roster of Experts for the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility, and serves as a scientific advisor to the Presidential Climate Action Plan.
We asked Dr. Baker to explain why carbon measurement is so important to the welfare of the world’s forests.
What effect does deforestation have on global carbon emissions?
Each year more than 13 million hectares of tropical forests are lost. Destroying forests not only releases carbon into the atmosphere through burning and decomposition, but also removes their ability to serve as "carbon sinks" –– natural reservoirs of carbon. We need forests to absorb and store carbon from the atmosphere and release oxygen. Forests help regulate the Earth’s water cycle, sustain a great diversity of plant and animal species, and directly support more than 750 million people.
Tropical deforestation represents around 15 percent of global carbon emissions – more than all the world’s cars, trucks buses, trains, and airplanes put together.
Many countries cut down forests, or will be compelled to do so in the future, due to the economic benefits of activities such as logging and agriculture.
How does measurement help countries preserve their forests?
The short answer is: You can’t value what you can’t measure.
Only by measuring forest carbon reliably can countries access the carbon markets and other sources of investment capital that would make forest preservation economically viable. Accurate information truly underpins everything communities, governments, and charities are doing to halt tropical deforestation.
So why isn’t measurement already happening?
Let’s say a national government wants to preserve an existing tract of tropical forest. They need to know: How much carbon is sequestered there? How permanent would these protections be? How can we tell it won’t result in a different forest being torn down over there? How can this all be verified?
Right now, none of these things can be done with sufficient confidence; there has been no cost-effective integration of measurement technologies and generally poor flows of data, making it impossible for governments to be compensated for avoiding deforestation.
How does CCI help address these challenges?
We help developing countries build border-to-border carbon accounting systems that measure forest carbon for international reporting and verification. It is absolutely essential that we have a combination of measurements taken from satellites and on-the-ground surveys – and we work with our partner countries to put both in place.
National governments need to be able to turn on their computers and have the satellite data come down to them in a useable format. We’ve been working through the Group on Earth Observations, a group of 80 countries and all the major space agencies, to forge the links between the developing countries and the satellite agencies.
Countries also need trained people on the ground identifying the species and measuring the diameter of trees with calipers. It would be too expensive to do this everywhere, so we do it in critical places and then use the satellite data to interpolate between those spots.
Of course, when countries have done the measurement they must also report and verify their forest carbon.
With whom does CCI work in this area?
This is a big job and we do not do it alone. On an international level, we work with both UN-REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) and the World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility.
On the national level, we have partnered with the governments of Cambodia, Guyana, Kenya, and Tanzania. We have put together the Carbon Measurement Collaborative, a team of climate scientists, policy experts in the development field, and technology experts in systems and software integration. Members include the Australian Government Department of Climate Change; ESRI; NASA; Google; Woods Hole Research Center; H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment; and the World Resources Institute.
What is the status of CCI’s work in partner countries?
In each country we follow the same basic steps: 1) confirm government commitment, 2) advise on a framework for measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) system development, 3) assess human capacity and identify technology needs, 4) help prepare a work plan and timeline, and 5) provide management oversight as appropriate. In Tanzania and Guyana, we are at stage 4, while in Kenya and Cambodia we are at stages 2 and 3.
What is different about CCI’s approach?
Our approach is unique in several key ways. First, we have a strong interest in real application to countries. Second, we work on a national scale. Third, we are able to convene parties and go directly to the highest levels of government in the countries where we work.
We recognize that one size does not fit all: Each country represents different types of forest cover and has different capacities and ways of operating. So we spend a lot of time in each country to understand their particular needs – and are able to bring what we learn from one place to another. This flexibility is also one of our unique strengths.
What impact has CCI had?
Before we started, there were only general ideas on the various methods that countries might use to measure forest carbon – and what the UN needed for information. There was this concept of reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) and afforestation (growing new trees) – but insufficient guidance on how countries could produce robust carbon information. What we’ve provided is a very practical, hands-on way to do so including a road map, technical assessments, training, access to technology (software, hardware), and access to funding.
What lies ahead for your program?
The outlook is positive. The agreement that was reached in Copenhagen to provide $3.5 billion for fast-start financing for REDD, and to scale up this support in line with opportunities and the delivery of results, underscores the urgency of having measurement, reporting, and verification systems in place as soon as possible!
CCI’s Carbon and Poverty Reduction Program is funded by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the government of Norway.
