Native trees will ease the carbon credit crunch

If Australia stopped logging native forests it would meet almost half of its five per cent carbon emission reduction target for 2020, according to an expert from ANU. According to Andrew Macintosh, Associate Director of the ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy, stopping native forest harvesting would generate enough carbon credits during the period 2013-2020 to meet 45 per cent of Australia's abatement task. In a new report, Potential carbon credits from reducing native forest harvesting in Australia, Mr Macintosh compared four possible approaches - harvesting rates at 2002-2009 average levels, keeping harvesting at 2010 levels (30 per cent below the 2002-2009 average), reducing harvesting by 50 per cent and a complete end to logging. 'The results of the study suggest that by reducing the harvesting of native forests, Australia could generate a substantial quantity of carbon credits,' said Mr Macintosh. 'The most significant of these is putting a halt to logging. Stopping native harvesting altogether would yield 38 mega tonnes of CO2 credits each year ' providing almost half of Australia's abatement task with a five per cent reduction target to 2020. 'Reducing logging by 50 per cent would generate enough carbon credits to meet 22 per cent of the task.