Department of Climate Change

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Fact sheets

Global Carbon Monitoring System

FACT SHEET

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Deforestation and forest degradation contribute to around 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, second only to the burning of fossil fuels to produce energy. There is the potential to reduce these emissions by encouraging more sustainable forest management practices.

With the emergence of carbon markets in response to climate change, sustainable forest management and reforestation are also seen as a means to help reduce poverty, particularly in developing countries. There is a need to develop an internationally accepted carbon monitoring and accounting system to enable the inclusion of forests in global carbon markets.

An international solution

Australia is committed to leading international action on forest and climate issues and recognises that addressing deforestation in developing countries is essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Reducing deforestation also represents one of the most cost-effective opportunities for short-term action on climate change.

The Australian Government will form a partnership with the Clinton Climate Initiative and many other partners from civil society, governments and the private sector around the world to develop an effective and efficient system for forest carbon measurement.

The partnership will facilitate access to technology that will help countries improve their access to the range of data already being collected on their national forests.

This will improve the capacity of all countries to make robust forest assessments and to monitor and manage their forests.

The overall aim is to demonstrate that this technology can be deployed on a global scale and in a manner that links sustainable forests with carbon trading markets. The availability of an internationally accepted system for measuring changes in forest and carbon stocks in forests is essential for the successful integration of forests into carbon markets. The system will monitor forests and account for emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. In particular, the partnership will focus on developing the system in the context of including forests in carbon trading markets.

Extending Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System

Australia’s National Carbon Accounting System (NCAS) is a world-leading system to account for greenhouse gas emissions from land-based sectors. The system is recognised as an ideal platform for developing a global carbon monitoring system.

The partnership between the Australian Government and the Clinton Climate Initiative will extend the NCAS into the international arena for global monitoring of carbon emissions.

The system will be consistent with the guidance of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the likely future needs of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The partnership will focus on two areas for developing the global carbon monitoring system:

  1. large scale projects that demonstrate the use of the NCAS in developing countries, and
  2. the development of a web based data delivery system that allows free and open access to a vast array of data from satellites, aircraft and field measurements.

Expected Outcomes

The partnership between the Australian Government and the Clinton Climate Initiative is expected to generate a number of outcomes including: