Al-Pac Leading in Efforts to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Forestry giant Alberta-Pacific Forest Industry Inc. (Al-Pac), North America's largest single line kraft pulp mill, has all the credits it needs for its own operations and a few more besides, says Director of Forest Strategies, Ken Plourde.

But Plourde says Al-Pac is taking a wait-and-see approach to new credit-producing projects - until Canada clarifies accounting rules related to greenhouse gas emissions and forest carbon management (FCM).

Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas linked to global warming and the subject of an international reduction effort, with targets set under terms of the Kyoto Protocol. Plants inhale carbon dioxide and trees are the ultimate heavy breathers. Consequently, forest carbon management is lusted after by nearly everyone concerned with meeting Kyoto targets.

In a country the size of Canada, FCM potential is clearly enormous. But it's less clear which lands will be eligible for FCM projects and who will own any emissions reductions credits.

While many facets of emissions accounting are uncertain, Plourde says Al-Pac is convinced that electrical cogeneration and plantation-style aforestation of private lands will be accepted. When the mill was built in 1991 it included an 80-megawatt cogen plant, and Al-Pac employees have been finding innovative new ways to change its main fuel from natural gas to wood waste, producing more "green power." They are also working with farmers in Northern Alberta to develop managed woodlots or "poplar farms." Al-Pac calculates that it will offset all its own emissions and that plantations will create a net carbon sink of 22,400 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) by 2006.

"We consider our plantation program a business opportunity," he says. By 2024 they expect the plantation program to involve nearly 20,000 hectares of private farmland and generate 455,000 tonnes (CO2e) per year of emission reduction credits.

Under the program, Al-Pac is attempting to reverse the practice of "liquidation logging" used by many farmers to clear land and gain a one-time windfall on timber sales. Al-Pac leases cleared land from the farmer, replants trees and often pays the farmer a maintenance fee to look after the new trees. When the trees are mature in 18-25 years, Al-Pac will harvest them for pulp production. The company also encourages farmers who want to clear forested areas on their land to instead manage their timber sustainably. This provides additional, ongoing farm income and a supply of timber to the company while maintaining trees on agricultural land.

The up-front costs of such programs are why Al-Pac isn't rushing into other, less certain forms of carbon sequestration, which may or may not count for emissions credits once Kyoto accounting rules are declared.

"Crown land is the big one," he says. No one knows for sure whether forestry companies will earn credits for any programs undertaken on large tracts of crown-owned forest.

Most big timber companies harvest provincial crown forests under lease agreements; acting as agents for the provincial crown. The crown is legal owner of the resource - and may determine that it is also the owner of any carbon credits or debits. Plourde says forest fires annually create huge carbon emissions and provincial governments understandably want credit for forest growth as a way to offset the fire liability. But this policy would leave little incentive for forestry companies to enhance forest growth and maximize carbon sequestration potential.
 
He says one simple solution may be to develop a fair-share approach to allocating credits, with the province taking credits from natural forest growth and forestry operators receiving credits for any enhanced growth attributable to their work.

The same crown ownership issue applies to reducing the width of seismic lines cut through forests for oil and gas exploration. Traditionally, oil and gas companies felled the timber from seismic lines and paid Timer Damage Assessment (TDA) fees for the loss to forest companies, but Al-Pac is encouraging explorers to reduce the width of cuts from eight metres to 2.5 metres. Oil and gas companies who do so are having those TDA fees waived for them by Al-Pac, because the forestry company wants to see less forested land disturbed for ecological reasons. They are asking for government support for this initiative.

"We are giving up the revenue and we are saying we should get the credit for it. We are saying, make the rules so that people will do these things."

Meanwhile, Plourde says, there are other opportunities that make sense, with or without carbon credits. Al-Pac is looking at reducing fuel consumption of its truck fleet, its second-biggest operating emitter, by developing new truck configurations with larger payloads, testing the potential of alternate fuels and making greater use of central tire-inflation technology to improve mileage.