Tree farmers are understanding more and more that they are part of efforts to control carbon emissions, just as industry may be involved is carbon trading.
From small land owners to leaders of South Carolina’s forestry industry will be gathering in Columbia Friday for a workshop on the opportunities available in the carbon market, where carbon credits will be a commodity among those who grow and harvest trees.
Today’s event is sponsored by the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, the Nature Conservancy and the Climate Action Reserve, a California-based company. As though the carbon credits concept were not complicated enough for most of us to understand, Max DuBuisson(DU-bi-sen) with Climate Action Reserve explains that his organization actually develops “offsets” to carbon trading found in potential cap and trade targets like coal-fired power plants.
“For example, under cap and trade, dairies would not be required to do anything about their methane emissions,” he said. “But it’s a powerful greenhouse gas. So you can take money from the power plant sector to install equipment at a dairy, to reduce emissions there.”
And Dubuisson points out that it’s cheaper for livestock operations to reduce emissions than it is for power plants to do so. The workshop takes place at Harbison Environmental Education Center, 5600 Broad River Road in Columbia, beginning at 9 am. [Read more...]
