Publications

This week, for the International Day of Forests, I4CE offers you an overview of the forestry issues that are being debated in France and in Brussels. In our newsletter, you will discover a new blog post by Julia Grimault on European carbon certification and our latest analyses on the adaptation of French forests to climate change, the French carbon sink and the wood industry. 

The future European carbon certification framework is under intense debate. The first meeting of the expert group in charge of supporting the Commission has raised criticisms on the composition and mandate of this group, and the discussions have taken an unexpected turn by achieving the feat of bringing NGOs and CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) industrialists to an agreement against natural carbon sinks, those of our forests or our agricultural soils. Where does this unlikely alliance come from?

How can we differentiate between projects that really enable carbon to be stored and those that only claim to do so? This is a complicated question when dealing with projects in agriculture and forestry, where quantifying carbon storage is complex, and where other environmental challenges, like the preservation of biodiversity, must also be taken into account. A complicated question, therefore, but one that needs an answer! Private actors and public authorities want to ensure that the agricultural and forestry projects financed in the name of the climate have a real environmental benefit.

Yesterday, 30 november 2022, the European Commission adopted a proposal for a first EU-wide voluntary framework to reliably certify high-quality carbon removals. This proposal provides a framework, broad guiding principles, and the details will be specified in 2023 supported by an expert group on Carbon Removals. “The devil may be in the detail”, but the framing is no less important. Claudine Foucherot of [i4ce] has analysed it and identified four points on which we must be vigilant. Overall, it can be said that the Commission is submitting an ambitious proposal, which nevertheless presents a risk: not being sufficient incentives to ensure a massive deployment of certified projects.    

The European Commission will propose a `carbon certification’ by the end of the year as a first step towards remunerating farmers and foresters who contribute to carbon farming. This certification project raises debates and concerns. For Adeline FAVREL of I4CE, the EU can respond and develop an ambitious certification by relying on the experience of the Member States in this field.

Many states have set themselves the objective of becoming carbon neutral: their residual emissions will have to be offset by equivalent absorptions by carbon sinks on their territory. Julia Grimault explains the uncertainties surrounding the forest sink and calls for localized and no-regrets actions to act against climate change.

In a general context of higher carbon prices and with a growing interest from companies to finance local emissions reductions projects, several European countries have started developing their own domestic carbon certification standards since the early 2010s. This study provides an overview of existing standards and of the obstacles they must overcome, as well as […]

The fires in the Amazon have put the challenge of deforestation back on the political and media agenda, responsible for about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2014). I4CE’s Clothilde Tronquet discusses the causes of deforestation and measures that could slow it down and avoid reaching a point of no return.

Le Groupe d'experts intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat (GIEC) (en anglais Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC) vient de publier son dernier « rapport spécial sur le changement climatique et secteur des terres », préparé par 107 experts de 52 pays et qui s’appuie sur 7 000 études scientifiques. I4CE, l’Institut de l’Économie pour le Climat, vous livre ici une synthèse des éléments majeurs de ce document.

On 6 July, the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Nicolas Hulot, organized a conference to mark the first anniversary of the Climate Plan. After a morning spent reviewing the progress made by France, the afternoon was dedicated to four workshops. These workshops were chaired by two Secretaries of State from the Ministry, the ADEME President, and Benoit Leguet the Managing Director of I4CE.