On February 11, 2008, carbon economist Johannes Ebeling and scientist Maï Yasué published a landmark study entitled Generating carbon finance through avoided deforestation and its potential to create climatic, conservation and human development benefits. The title is long but the Journals of the Royal Society in the United Kingdom saw fit not only to assist these great minds in publishing their work but in aiding its promotion as well.
I bring it to your attention because this magnificent work combines the economic and environmental consequences not just of deforestation but reforestation and then adds yet another layer, the somewhat newer concept of avoided deforestation in the valuation of carbon credits.
Whew! I know. I am delving much deeper into economics and hard science than I usually do. Hang with me, dear reader. One of the very first topics I covered when this blog went live was my carbon credit definition, a vital concept which relates to how we reverse global warming without shuttering the world’s economy. In the succeeding months, I covered reforestation extensively. I only have touched on rational carbon management, though, and now is the time to report on all of it.
The sequence is as follows: in order to reverse the effects of global warming, we must stop destroying trees. Then, we have to replant the great forests which blanketed the Earth before industrialization and, in some regions, before large-scale forestry. Well, forest products are important materials. So, how do we accomplish all of these crucial steps simultaneously? Carbon credits are the answer.
Every single action which occurs on Earth, from the crawling of an insect, to driving across town, to manufacturing a computer chip, involves the expulsion of carbon. With site credits, rational carbon management and a universal carbon credit definition, we can measure that expulsion uniformly across industries and international borders. The situation as it exists today is, at best, a patchwork which leaves room for loopholes.
The Ebeling, Yasué study points to the fact that a single system of site credits, rational carbon management and universal carbon credit definition not only can place us on the track to real reform but remove a large barrier to global participation, the monetary value of avoided deforestation in developing nations.
It may sound obscure or arcane but believe me when I tell you, the Ebeling, Yasué study may well be the Rosetta Stone of rational carbon management, which in turn can unlock environmental equity, allowing nations which are rich in old-growth forests to derive the appropriate benefit from protecting their trees. If we in the industrialized world can help them do that and employ the same carbon credit definition as part of a rational carbon management program, humanity will be well on the way toward assuring that the response to global warming is global, too.
Sustainable Justice For All!
Corbett Kroehler
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