Climate Change, Carbon Trading, and Forest Carbon
Lloyd C. Irland work on Climate Change Lecturer and Senior Research Scientist
My work on forests and carbon adaptation has been in three areas: forest carbon storage, biomass based fuel supply analysis, and assessment of facilitating adaptation of forests to climate change. I also offer here a proposal for a study on cap and trade markets that is based on previous research.
Carbon Storage in forests and markets for carbon credits.
I have done consulting work on forest carbon storage strategies, and prepared a major assessment of the role of forests in addressing carbon issues for the Northeast Regional biomass Program. I currently serve as a member of the Northeast Regional Biomass Project steering committee. I completed a manuscript on the development of the European Carbon market, based on two months of work at Nancy, France on the ETS. I am supervising student work on various aspects of carbon markets in forestry. I frequently address meetings on this subject. I have developed a proposal to assess how market -ready different regions of the US are for Cap and Trade systems for emissions allowances.
My work on the Northeast Regional and the National Climate Change Assessments resulted in several peer-reviewed publications (listed below). Several years ago I conducted a brief assessment of forest carbon storage options for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In summer and fall 2007, I conducted an assessment for The Nature Conservancy on the economics of stacking timber, carbon, and hunting lease revenues to fund carbon forest plantations in the Mississippi Delta Region of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.
I am conducted a two day training session at TERI in New Delhi in March 2007, on developing forest-based CDM projects, and one-day training session at Yale on the same subject. A co-author and I presented a talk on making forest carbon projects into viable financial assets at the 2007 Society of American Foresters meeting in Portland Oregon.
Biomass Analysis & Supply Assessment
One avenue to reducing oil dependence is further development of energy from wood biomass sources. As a private consultant I perform analyses of supply and cost of wood biomass from forests and wood products plants. . I also conduct due diligence work on the same subject. This work generally does not lead to publications, being proprietary in nature. A list is attached.
It would be most timely to update the regional assessment I conducted for the NERBP in 1998, but they lack the funding to do so. That report has received many compliments and a good deal of use. (Report is third item on attached list)
Facilitating Adaptation of Forests
In 2004 I presented a talk at a Forest Biology Workshop, whose basic message was that talk of forests adapting to future climate had thus far been confined to abstract notions. These were termed "coping options" as if their practicality could be assumed. None of these had been subject to testing against reality in the form of ecological, logistical, or financial feasibility. This remains true. As a result, considerable discussion continues about how we will help forests to adapt by creating "migration corridors" and similar ideas. A research project can readily be developed that would take inventory of the various coping options that have been considered, for, say, the Northeast. A set of straightforward analyses of their feasibility could be conducted, resulting in a ranking of the various options according to their applicability and feasibility. Since such options are necessarily place-specific, such an analysis would have to be regionally based. A study of this kind could be scoped to fit a range of budgets, by tailoring coverage of options included and depth of analysis to a budget. But a total budget of $100,000 to $150,000 would enable a substantial start to be made.
Relevant Publications
* are peer reviewed.
Irland, "Ecosystem management in northern forests: potential role in managing the carbon cycle: an exploratory assessment." American Forests Working Paper, Washington, DC, Jan. 1995, 39 p.
Irland, "Stakeholder perceptions and concerns, Northeastern forest owners and industry," In: New England Regional Climate Change Impacts Workshop Summary Report. Sept. 3-5, 1997.
Irland and Cline, Role of northeastern forests and wood products in carbon sequestration. Report to Northeast Regional Biomass Program/CONEG. 1998. Washington, DC. On web at http://www.nrbp.org.
Joyce, Aber, McNulty, Dale, Hansen, Irland, Neilson, and Skog. "Potential consequences of climate variability and change for the forests of the US," In: National Assessment Synthesis Team Climate Change Impacts on the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. 2001, pp. 489-521.
* Irland, Adams, Alig, Betz, Chen, Hutchins, McCarl, Skog, and Sohngen, "Assessing socioeconomic impacts of climate change on US forests, wood-product markets, and forest recreation." BioScience 51(9): 7534-764. Sept. 2001.
Lauten, Rock, Spencer, Perkins, and Irland, "Climate impacts on regional forests," In: Preparing for a changing climate-potential consequences of climate variability and change: New England Regional Overview. US Global Change Res. Progr. Univ. of New Hampshire. pp. 32-48.
* Dale, Joyce, McNulty, Neilson, Ayres, Flannigan, Hanson, Irland, Lugo, Peterson, Simberloff, Swanson, Stocks, and Wotton, "Climate change and forest disturbances." Bioscience, 51(9): 2001.
* Irland, (coord.) "Ice storm 1998 and the forests of the northeast: a preliminary assessment." J. For. Sept. 1998, pp. 32-40.
*Irland, "Ice storms and forest impacts." Science of the Total Environment, 262 (2000): 231-242.
Unpublished: During summer 2006, I conducted an assessment of the liquidity of the European Emissions trading System (ETS), while on a research appointment at ENGREF, in Nancy, France. That report is availaible here.