Carbon Sequestration

Although a diversity of policy measures and technological developments are underway to reduce carbon emissions from transport, total transport emissions are unlikely to drop until 2050 and beyond. Even with increased fuel efficiency, low emission vehicles, integrated traffic management solutions and improved public transport, the desire for people to travel means that emissions from transport will continue to be increase in the short term at least. The IPCC low emissions scenarios predict that emissions from transport still be twice as high as 1990 levels in 2050 (IPCC 2000), with over 3,188 MtC emitted globally per annum, and may be much higher.

Forestry and land use activities which take up carbon can provide a means of offsetting some of these emissions. While new technologies being introduced may have long lead-times before emissions reductions are achieved, forestry projects to provide long-term carbon storage can be put in place. It is likely that significant expansion from current levels of afforestation could take place at costs of $5-10 per tonne CO2 stored.

There are a variety of activities which have the potential to take up carbon. The quantity of carbon that could be sequestered by afforestation and reforestation over the next 50 years could technically be as high as ~65 GtC. This assumes that all ecologically suitable land may actually be available. Assuming only one-third was available for AR activities (Houghton et al, 1991), this gives a figure of 20 GtC. Agroforestry projects such as Scolel Té could also store significant amounts of carbon and provide additional social and environmental benefits.

Tree planting in Chiapas, Mexico

Figure 4: Potential contribution to global sequestration by AR and agroforestry activities 1995-2050
Source: data from Brown et al., 1996. Note: Brown et al. revisited their 1996 estimates of global AR potential for the IPCC Third Assessment Report and found no significant new evidence indicating substantial change to this estimate.

Peugeot is contributing to an afforestation project in the Brazilian Amazon with Pro-Natura and the ONF (National Forestry Office). The project aims to plan over 5,000 ha of Amazonian reforest and estimates it will sequester 10,000 tC per annum over 40 years.

The Scolel Té project in the Chiapas Region in Mexico has been supported by the Federation International d'Automibile (FIA). This project aims to help small-scale rural farmers develop agroforestry project and rehabilitate degraded land.