TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimation of forest carbon stocks for national greenhouse gas inventory reporting in South Korea
AU - Lee, Sun Jeoung
AU - Yim, Jong Su
AU - Son, Yeong Mo
AU - Son, Yowhan
AU - Kim, Raehyun
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was carried out with support from the R&D Program for Forest Science Technology (Project No. 2017044C10-1819-BB01) provided by the Korea Forest Service (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute). This research was funded by Korea Forest Service (Korea Forestry Promotion Institute), grant number (2017044C10-1819-BB01).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors.
PY - 2018/10/10
Y1 - 2018/10/10
N2 - The development of country-specific emission factors in relation to the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector has the potential to improve national greenhouse gas inventory systems. Forests are carbon sinks in the AFOLU that can play an important role in mitigating global climate change. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signatory countries must report forest carbon stocks, and the changes within them, using emission factors from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or from country-specific values. This study was conducted to estimate forests carbon stocks and to complement and improve the accuracy of national greenhouse gas inventory reporting in South Korea. We developed country-specific emissions factors and estimated carbon stocks and their changes using the different approaches and methods described by the IPCC (IPCCEF: IPCC default emission factors, CSFT: country-specific emission factors by forest type, and CSSP: country-specific emission factors by species). CSFT returned a result for carbon stocks that was 1.2 times higher than the value using IPCCEF. Using CSSP, CO2 removal was estimated to be 60,648 Gg CO2 per year with an uncertainty of 22%. Despite a reduction in total forest area, forests continued to store carbon and absorb CO2, owing to differences in the carbon storage capacities of different forest types and tree species. The results of this study will aid estimations of carbon stock changes and CO2 removal by forest type or species, and help to improve the completeness and accuracy of the national greenhouse gas inventory. Furthermore, our results provide important information for developing countries implementing Tier 2, the level national greenhouse gas inventory systems recommended by the IPCC.
AB - The development of country-specific emission factors in relation to the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector has the potential to improve national greenhouse gas inventory systems. Forests are carbon sinks in the AFOLU that can play an important role in mitigating global climate change. According to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signatory countries must report forest carbon stocks, and the changes within them, using emission factors from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or from country-specific values. This study was conducted to estimate forests carbon stocks and to complement and improve the accuracy of national greenhouse gas inventory reporting in South Korea. We developed country-specific emissions factors and estimated carbon stocks and their changes using the different approaches and methods described by the IPCC (IPCCEF: IPCC default emission factors, CSFT: country-specific emission factors by forest type, and CSSP: country-specific emission factors by species). CSFT returned a result for carbon stocks that was 1.2 times higher than the value using IPCCEF. Using CSSP, CO2 removal was estimated to be 60,648 Gg CO2 per year with an uncertainty of 22%. Despite a reduction in total forest area, forests continued to store carbon and absorb CO2, owing to differences in the carbon storage capacities of different forest types and tree species. The results of this study will aid estimations of carbon stock changes and CO2 removal by forest type or species, and help to improve the completeness and accuracy of the national greenhouse gas inventory. Furthermore, our results provide important information for developing countries implementing Tier 2, the level national greenhouse gas inventory systems recommended by the IPCC.
KW - Carbon stock changes
KW - Forest
KW - Greenhouse gas inventory
KW - IPCC
KW - South Korea
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85054740731&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/f9100625
DO - 10.3390/f9100625
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85054740731
SN - 1999-4907
VL - 9
JO - Forests
JF - Forests
IS - 10
M1 - 625
ER -