Making Green Carbon Count
t
What the
experts say
"Reductions in national forest carbon stocks
are caused by forest clearing for agriculture, urban or industrial
development, wood harvest from production forests, and natural
disturbance events such as bushfires."Australia's Forests at a Glance"
2015: 27. ABARES.
The federal Government's decision to make native forest wood eligible for Renewable Energy Certificates
will make
climate change worse.
Native forest logging
generates almost 10 percent of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions
but these emissions are not even counted. Logging is treated as if it were carbon neutral.
Scientific research enables us to calculate more accurately
the cost of carbon pollution generated by native forest logging for the
Eden chipmill.
Professor Brendan Mackey’s “Green Carbon - The role of natural forests
in carbon storage” released by the Australian National University in
August 2008, providesgve the first figures on the carbon carrying capacity of SE
Australia’s eucalypt forests.
From this
data we can calculate that over 18 millions of CO2 is generated every
year by logging for woodchips in SE NSW and East Gippsland.
calculation
This is equivalent to:
More than
every car in Sydney or Melbourne off the road for a year from just the NSW logging.
approximately 20 times the
greenhouse emissions saved by the whole of Australia per year from the
ban on the incandescent light globe (source: media
statement, then Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, 20 February 2007 which says the ban will save
800,000 tonnes per year from 2008 to 2012).
257 times the
greenhouse emissions saved by the Bega Valley Shire Council moving to
renewable electricity or giving up electricity altogether (source:
CleanEnergyForEternity plan: 7,211 tonnes CO2 per year generated by BVSC).
In
addition to direct CO2 and/or equivalent emissions, there are also major greenhouse
emissions such as: