Can Trees contribute to climate amelioration?

The year 2021-22 will go down in the books of history as the post-COVID year. Though many strains of the novel corona virus remain among the population we have adapted and evolved biologically. The war is not won but mankind fought together to win battles against COVID. The year has also borne witness to some dramatic climatic events across the world. Many places across the world have recorded some of the highest temperatures and most erratic precipitation patterns ever recorded in history of those places. This long term shift in temperature and weather pattern is known as climate change.

Let me start with my journey of understanding climate change. Working as a system engineer after my bachelor, climate change came in as part of my general awareness. If I remember correctly the brief understanding included that the earth was getting warmer (process known as global warming), and humans had to keep the temperature below 2⁰C rise in global average temperature to the pre-industrial era. The change in the local temperature may vary from place to place hence the need for a global average. The change was attributed to the excess emission of green houses gases (GHG) like Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Among them carbon dioxide is most prominent contributor of GHG. Many of us could relate to the classic image of the polar bear on a small ice cap which signified the melting polar ice and rise in sea level. Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and planting trees seemed as a natural solution to combat climate change.

My understanding of climate change started to improve when few years later I joined the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) for my post graduate diploma in forestry management (PGDFM). At IIFM I started developing a comprehensive view of climate change. As management students we also learnt how the climate action is implemented at the national and international level. Countries have come together to form conference of parties (COP) under the UNFCCC (United Nations framework convention on climate change). The COP is the supreme body of the member states to the convention formed with the objective of responding to the threat of climate change. The third such COP was held in Kyoto in 1997 where the countries agreed to set emission limits. The body cannot directly impose any limits to the level of emission by the member countries but the convention negotiates between member states for the global betterment. The developed countries have taken the onus for the greater share in the contribution to climate change and have over time agreed for technology transfer and the investments in developing countries. The Kyoto protocol also gave rise to market linked mechanisms to offset the carbon emissions. It was understood that if the monetary side of the climate action is not used it would not be implementable. In India the ministry of environment and forest was given the charge of forming and implementing climate change mitigation action plan.

Many of us would think that the rising temperature is the only consequence of the climate change we would feel in our day to day life. There are sequences of events that arise from the rise in the temperature of the earth. With climate change two basic elements that govern the weather condition, namely the water cycle and air current gets affected. This gives rise to very erratic weather conditions. The unpredictability also makes it challenging for environmental experts and mathematicians to predict such events.

Whatever your profession, social or economic strata you are from it is highly likely climate change is going to impact you. With the temperature rise, the summers are warmer and longer in duration. In trying to keep us cool the use of air conditioners, the use of refrigerators for storage has increased significantly which raises our electricity bills. The erratic rainfall patterns impact agricultural output. Cultivation of most staple crops requires an ample amount of water during the initial stages and no heavy showers towards the later stages. Rain or storm in the final stages of the crop before harvesting damages the crop. With change in climatic patterns there are drought like situations in initial stages and rainfall towards harvesting times. Such events will give rise to global hunger. With the rise in event of crop failure, there is a tendency of the small and marginal farmers to shift to other practices. These farmers would end up migrating to the urban areas as daily wage labours. The migration causes more and more urban slums. Most of the urban areas have population density more than the natural capacity of the place and inadequate drainage systems. The drainage systems are clogged by unnatural rainfalls. This is the habitat for disease vectors like mosquitoes and flies increasing serious health hazards in urban areas. The increasing temperature dries up land and forests increasing the number of forest and urban fires. Apart from the economic loss forest fire impacts the biodiversity and increases human animal conflict.

Now that we know the challenges created by climate change how do we avert it? To answer that we must know what kind of activities are contributing to the release of GHG. Another question sometimes asked is if climate change happens naturally as well. Climate change happens due to natural processes like sun aging, but the processes are extremely slow compared to the life cycle of mankind. It is inevitable to prevent the release of greenhouse gas and undergo development as most activities like agriculture, raising cattle, driving to the office, using any electric appliance, and construction contribute to the release of greenhouse gases. Human activities annually release 51 billion tons of GHG into the atmosphere. What according to you would be the top contributor of GHG? The idea behind raising the question is whether we ever care how much GHG our activities have released into the atmosphere. Manufacturing activities contribute about 31% to the GHG emission while the production of electricity contributes about 27% to GHG. The production of steel and cement alone contributes about 10% GHG emission and is considered the highest contributor. Manufacturing cement releases an equal amount of carbon dioxide while manufacturing steel releases about double the amount of carbon dioxide. Both steel and cement have carbon dioxide as a by-product of the manufacturing process. Another major contributor to GHG is the burning of fossil fuels primarily coal and petroleum. Coal is the primary source of electricity generation in many developed countries.

Tremendous efforts have been made to mitigate the impact of climate change. Climate change can be mitigated by reducing the amount of GHG released into the atmosphere and trapping the existent atmospheric GHG. As we discussed before the most common GHG is carbon dioxide, and the most obvious choice to mitigate climate change seems to be planting more trees which intake carbon dioxide naturally. The market mechanisms we have discussed before are also targeted at increasing the forest tree cover. When COP member countries implement emission rules they have a provision to offset the release by equal amount of plantation. There is however a caveat to using this natural carbon dioxide absorber to address climate change. A tree typically absorbs about 25 kg of carbon dioxide every year. Say if we have a hectare of monoculture plantation it will absorb about 0.25 million kg of carbon annually. With this assumption, if we plant the entire country of India (328.7 million hectares) it will absorb about 0.1 percent of the total annual emission. If we are considering extensive plantation it impacts the weather conditions. It is hard to predict the exact shift in weather conditions when such large area is planted however, the tree cover is expected to make the area cool which will probably increase the rainfall in the area making the adjoining areas dry. While planting more trees have benefits like improving biodiversity and reducing GHG it cannot have a significant impact on the 51 billion tons of GHG we are releasing. As discussed before two of the top three GHG emitters are vital for construction and the third is fulfilling our energy demand. There is a lot of focus on renewable and clean sources of energy to mitigate climate change. The global energy demand is approximately 5000 GW. The energy demand for India is much lower than the global average. There is significant work in progress on how the current demand can be met with renewable sources of energy especially solar. I would like the audience to try and find how much energy is generated through solar energy. Renewable sources absorb power from natural sources which require large geographical areas and suitable locations. If we attempt to compare how much area we need to generate energy from fossil fuel as compared to the area needed to generate the same from renewable sources it would be in the ratio of 1:100. The most challenging part with renewable energy generation is the cost of setting up storage and transmission infrastructure from such preferred locations. Almost every product ranging from a hair dryer to a car needs energy. Renewable sources of energy are dependent on the natural source which sometimes has erratic supply due to the change in intensity of the natural event used to generate power. This calls for an improvement in storage technology. The other proponent to meet the energy needs is nuclear energy. Bill Gates is an active believer in this theory. The design of nuclear reactors and decomposing the nuclear fuel is the greatest challenge when dealing with nuclear power. Nuclear fusion is considered the best option for generating energy. Nuclear fusion leaves no harmful effects but the process requires a huge amount of energy to start making it a challenge for commercial implementation as of date.

Overcoming the energy crisis of replacing energy from fossil fuel has garnered significant attention. The efforts are backed by investors helping capitalise on many ideas. However replacing or improvement in manufacturing process of the two major contributors of GHG has not drawn similar attention. GHG emissions from the production of steel and cement are increasing with the rapid increase in construction activities and increase of urban reach. Natural sources like wood and bamboo have been traditionally used for construction works. Use of such natural sources help revert the process of release of GHG. As the tree or bamboo grows they absorb the green house gas and keep it trapped. When they are used for the construction of houses they keep the internal temperature warm in winter and colder than outside in the summer. However, realising this dream in long run has two caveats. First we need to reduce the life span of trees and bamboo species to meet the demand and secondly we need to improve the qualities of the material so used. Development in genetic science is at the core of the first problem. We at Bah Bet are working on addressing the second problem. Heat and steam can be used to alter the chemical components of wood creating products with desired features. These products could augment the need for efficient construction material. There is already work is progress. There is a significant focus on bamboo as alternate construction material wherever possible. International network on bamboo and rattan (INBAR) is extensively working in this area. North East India has one of the most varied bamboo vegetation. There is however a high focus that is needed in terms of structural integrity in the construction and designs that would be competent at the international level. The removal of bamboo as a forest product and its inclusion as an agricultural product made a lot of changes in the plantation scope of bamboo easing out harvesting and transport regulations. North East India is also home to a large number of plant species apart from bamboo. We have to look at fast-growing plant species. The research in the field of genetic improvement has to be accelerated and needs to be backed by adequate funding. After the usable life cycle if the plant degenerates naturally and the carbon doesn’t make it to the atmosphere closing the scope for GHG emissions.

In the post-COVID times, the East-West divide seems to be on the rise, especially with the Russia-Ukraine war. The world has shifted to a new model of business model called friendshoring. In simple terms, it is doing business with allies. This model would pose a challenge to the technology transfer avenues that came up from the Kyoto protocol. The fight against climate change needs a concerted effort with people from all spheres contributing to it. We can contribute in our way to the fight against climate change. Small decisions we take can make big changes. For example we can use public transport whenever feasible. When we run the AC at 250C and keep the fans on it saves electricity by optimizing the usage. The saving is also reflected in the electricity bill. The use of Bureau of energy efficiency (BEE) four-star or five-star rated products saves electricity and your pockets. There is only one planet we know that sustains life, we got to save it at all costs. This is a war we have to fight together. We defeated COVID together and we can win the war against climate change.