India claims to have a significant net sink of CO2

Its release is being seen as a vital step in the run up to the climate change negotiations in Copenhagen scheduled to be held in December. Ramesh said that the findings would come in handy while putting across India’s stand in future negotiations on climate change.

The report claims,” From 1995 to 2005,the carbon stocks stored in our forests and trees have increased from 6,245 million tones (mt) to 6662 mt,registering an annual increment of 38 mt of carbon or 138 mt of CO2 equivalent.”

Referring to the mitigation service by India’s forest and tree cover,the report states,” Our estimates show that the annual CO2 removals by India’s forest and tree cover is enough to neutralize 11.25 per cent of India’s Green House Gas (GHG) emissions (CO2 equivalent) at 1994 levels,the most recent year for which comparable data is available for developing countries based on their respective National Communications (NATCOMS) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).”

It further states,”This is equivalent to offsetting 100 per cent emissions from all energy in residential and transport sectors; or 40 per cent of total emissions from the agriculture sector”.

Quantifying the value of mitigation,the report says,” Putting a conservative value of US $ 5 per tonne of CO2 locked in our forests,this huge sink of about 24,000 mt of CO2 is worth US $ 120 billion or Rs 6,00,000 crores.”

The report also looks at the various scenarios related to India’s carbon stocks in future.

While the first scenario takes to forest and tree cover decreasing at the rate of world average,it reveals that the total carbon stored in India’s forests will decrease to 6,504 mt in 2015.

Under second scenario,if the carbon stocks in country’s forest and tree cover continue to increase at the historical rate of the last decade (0.6 per cent per annum),the carbon stored in India’s forests will increase to 6,998 mt.

The third scenario that has been given maximum importance envisages that while the carbon stock in country’s forest and tree cover increases at a rate higher than the historical rate of increase,the total carbon stored in India’s forests in 2015 will increase to 7,283 mt.

The report goes on to say,” This is the path we intend to tread in India. The country has launched a series of progressive policy initiatives on Sustainable Management of Forests (SMF) as well as Afforestation and Reforestation (A&R),which involve significant additional resources for sustaining and growing India’s forest cover. This includes the world’s largest Forest Restitution Fund with 2.5 billion US dollars fund as of June 2009,which is being deployed for SMF and A&R programmes as well as a policy to include forestry related activities in the flagship employment scheme of the country. It also includes introducing new forestry related schemes on components such as capacity building in the forestry sector.”

While these measures will provide annual public expenditure of 1 billion US dollars on forest related activities,it will also lead to an increase in the quality and density of India’s forests as well as the rate of increase of forest and tree cover,the report says.