ROLE OF TERRESTRIAL SEQUESTRATION IN MEETING KYOTO TARGETS

Abstract

There is strong scientific consensus that the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is increasing due to human activities and that this is leading to changes in the Earth’s climate. Fluxes between terrestrial ecosystems and the atmosphere are a significant component of the global carbon cycle and actions to increase net storage in terrestrial ecosystems (often called sinks) will delay the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There is still political debate as to which sinks may be accounted in compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. The decisions made will affect the total costs of compliance with the Kyoto Protocol by a factor or two to four. Geological sequestration may also reduce emissions by an amount of the same order as sequestration in terrestrial sinks. Biological and geological sequestration offer a significant opportunity to buy several decades of time to make an efficient transition to technologies and economies that release less greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere from energy production and industrial processes.