Photo: Mark Hopgood
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasian value chain perspective
Dr Paul Dargusch
Director, CarbonLab
Faculty of Science, University of Queensland,
Australia
About Us
My teaching and research groups at the University of Queensland is called the
Carbon Lab www.carbonlab.net
Our group has a specific interest in how we can facilitate the development of
carbon offset projects that support sustainable management of forest and
marine ecosystems. Our work borrows from the fields of political economy,
political ecology, ecological economics, value chain analysis and systems
thinking.
Our work has been funded through grants (totalling more than US$6 million
2012-2015) from the Australian Research Council, the World Bank and the
Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
Selected Publications
Dargusch, P. and Smith, C. (2012). Mainstreaming systems science. Science. (337) : 645-646.
Dargusch, P. and Thomas, S. (2012). A critical role for carbon offsets. Nature Climate Change. 2 (7):
470.
Law, E., Thomas, S., Meijaard, E. Dargusch, P., and Wilson, K. (2012). A modular framework for
managing complexity in international forest carbon policy. Nature Climate Change. 2: 155-160.
Thomas, S., Dargusch, P. and Griffiths, A. (2011). The drivers and outcomes of CDM project
development in China. Environmental Policy and Governance. 21 (4): 223-239.
Dargusch, P., Maraseni, T. And Schmidt, P. (2010). A review of research on forest-related
environmental markets (including certification schemes, bioenergy, carbon markets and other
ecosystem services). CAB Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and
Natural Resources 5 (22): 1-12.
Thomas, S., Dargusch, P., Harrison, S. and Herbohn, J. (2010). Why are there so few afforestationbased CDM projects? Land Use Policy. 27 (3); 880-887.
McAlpine, C., Laurance, W., Ryan, J., Seabrook, L., Syktus, J., Etter, A., Fearnside, P., Dargusch, P.,
Pielke, P. and Thomas, S. (2010). More than CO2: A broader picture for managing climate change and
variability to avoid ecosystem collapse. Current Opinions in Environmental Sustainability. 2: 1-13.
www.carbonlab.net
Emissions Trading Simulation
4
Why the interest in blue carbon?
Why would businesses be interested in
paying for the protection and
enhancement of carbon stocks in marine
ecosystems?
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
Carbon Markets and Carbon Offsets
Carbon Offset Credit
Accepted Standard
Developing Countries
$
Buyer for compliance
(national)/
Voluntary purpose
(CSR)
Industrialised Countries
1 tonne of CO2e sequestered or avoided = 1 carbon offset.
(1 tonne of C is approximately 3.67tCO2e)
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
A US$140 billion/yr carbon market has emerged
Build wind turbine
Retrofit lighting
Build PV unit
Switch to hybrid cars
Convert waste to bio-energy
Switch fuels to biodiesel
The carbon market is very interested in offsets
because they offer a lower cost compliance option.
Permit price
Offset price
Blue Carbon in Mangroves
planted mangroves
natural mangroves
(post 1990; 2m tall; 20%
canopy cover; 0.2ha)
(avoided degradation;
everything else)
CDM A/R, JI A/R
VCS A/R, CFI
REDD G2G,
VCS REDD, CFI
There is a lot of interest in blue carbon because the
carbon stocks of some marine ecosystems, like
mangroves are particularly large, and this means that
offsets might be able to be produced at low cost.
(Donato et al., 2011)
But only < 1% of the 8000+ carbon offset projects registered or under
review globally are ‘green or blue carbon’ projects
Blue Carbon & Carbon Markets
‘Good’ offset projects are commercially challenging
- they are less attractive investments than other offset types
- transaction costs are high
- yields are delayed (as trees grow)
- land tenure can be unclear
- land availability can be constrained (socially, food security)
- methodologies can be complex
- managing ecosystems involves long timeframes
- getting plants to grow can be technically difficult
- compensating people for foregone activities is complicated
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
How can we fix this?
How can we make ‘good’ forms of carbon offsetting,
such as Blue Carbon, a more appealing development
proposition?
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
Example: Integrative Landscape Carbon (revealing the ‘value’ of carbon)
Key
1 terrestrial reforestation sequestration
2 avoided emissions using conservation farming
3 seagrass sequestration
4 mangrove reforestation sequestration
5 wind power electricity generation
6 solar thermal electricity generation
7 indigenous community reforestation project
8 landfill methane flaring
Note: Outcomes from different offset projects can be integrated to achieve desired mitigation,
cost and sustainability objectives. The cost of offsets to the proponent is the weighted average
cost of offsets across all offset activities. The mix of projects can be designed to reduce costs of
abatement. The proponent’s social license to operate can be supported by promoting and
emphasising the social and ecological benefits of more charismatic offset activities.
Current Projects
•
Australian Research Council
- ILC in Australian farming systems
•
ACIAR Catchment Rehabilitation
- investigating ILC in Philippines catchments
•
World Bank GEF CCRES
- ‘Capturing Coral Reef Ecosystem Services’
- Philippines, Indonesia and Pacific (to be specified)
- 3 Components; Component 2 ‘Designing Enterprises’
- Value chain, participatory and systems based approach
- Attempting to consider multiple spatial and scales
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net
Merci !
Thank you to the Australian Academy of
Sciences for sponsoring this visit.
Contact Details:
Dr Paul Dargusch
Director, CarbonLab
University of Queensland
Australia
+61 448 606 257
p.dargusch@uq.edu.au
www.carbonlab.net
The political economy of blue carbon
An Australasia value chain perspective
www.carbonlab.net