Down to earth: Accounting for carbon stocks
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Public Lecture
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Greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories underpinning the UNFCCC and Kyoto protocol report each country’s net annual emissions, that is GHG flows. Yet the UNFCCC’s goal is defined as a stock (atmospheric GHG concentration).
Complementing current flow-based inventories with carbon stock information opens the opportunity to communicate fundamental differences amongst carbon reservoirs: in their carbon stock stability, restoration capacity and density. These differentiate fossil carbon reservoirs from the biocarbon in ecosystems and enable different types of fossil and biocarbon reservoirs to be defined. These quality differences will be explained before presenting a carbon stock accounting framework and discussing the policy applications.
Dr Judith Ajani is a senior fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society and the HC Coombs Policy Forum, Crawford School of Public Policy. She participated in the UN Statistics Division process to develop the carbon stock accounting section of the draft UN SEEA Experimental Ecosystem Accounting.
This seminar is based on the paper Ajani J., Keith H., Blakers M., Mackey B., and King H. (in press), ‘Comprehensive carbon stock and flow accounting: A national framework to support climate change mitigation policy’, Ecological Economics.
This lecture is free and open to the public. A light lunch will be served from midday in the Level 1 foyer.
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Updated: 29 March 2024/Responsible Officer: Crawford Engagement/Page Contact: CAP Web Team