Can the EU emission trading scheme support CDM forestry?

Abstract

The European Commission is mandated to consider the inclusion of credits from land-use projects under the clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation (JI), beginning with the second period of the European Union's emission trading scheme (ETS) in its report due in July 2006. Temporary credits from afforestation and reforestation under the CDM are seen by many as posing a technical problem for their use under the ETS. This article summarizes three feasible, efficient and environmentally sound alternatives for achieving the integration of such temporary credits in the European emissions trading market starting in 2008. The first proposal integrates tCERs and lCERs (temporary credits) into the EU ETS by allowing for their direct use for compliance purposes. The second proposal builds on the idea of swapping temporary credits for EU allowances (EUAs) by Member States. The third proposal would not require a political decision at the EU level. Instead supportive Member States or private carbon fund operators would agree to swap temporary credits for the CERs or ERUs they hold in their accounts. All three solutions would be linked to a risk-mitigation strategy based on levying a fee or fixing an exchange rate, which would allow governments to hedge the risk of losing temporary credits.     

How many seasonal workers from the Pacific have been employed in New Zealand since the RSE scheme began?

This Research Note provides the first reliable figures on the numbers of seasonal workers from the Pacific Islands who participated in the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme between July 2007 and June 2022. The method for deriving these figures is explained briefly before examining the frequency of return by men and women for employment in subsequent seasons from the nine participating Pacific states. Clarification of the numbers of seasonal workers involved in the scheme, as distinct from work visas issued each year for RSE employment, is timely for two reasons. Firstly, the RSE scheme is under review in March 2023 by Immigration New Zealand. Secondly, the three major sources of Pacific seasonal labour are raising questions in 2023 about the impact of the scheme on their domestic labour markets and economies. Robust data on numbers of Pacific seasonal workers during the scheme's first 15 years contributes important information in both these contexts.     

Strain Associated with the Fault-Parallel Flow Algorithm During Kinematic Fault Displacement

Deformation studies require that geological bodies are kinematically moved along faults. Fault-parallel flow is one of a small number of kinematic restoration algorithms developed for this purpose. This scale-independent method describes how material nodes are displaced parallel to the fault plane, in the direction of fault movement. The one-dimensional strain of linear objects and two-dimensional strain of bodies within the hanging-wall during the restoration is shown for all cutoff angles and all angles of fault bends. A line moving over a fault bend is either shortened or extended depending on its initial orientation. However, the elongation of the line is significantly different under shortening and extension, with respect to the fault bend angle. The geometries of compressional fault systems, in which faults change angle by about 20 to 40°, generate low values of elongation. Modeling of extensional faults, which typically have steeper dips (60 to 80°) and therefore have tighter fault bends, causes high, unnatural values of elongation. The calculated strain ellipse ratios are directly proportional to the fault bend angle, corroborating the one-dimensional results. The fault-parallel flow method should be used primarily to kinematically restore and forward-model compressional faults, and other faults where the fault bend angles do not exceed 40°.     

Restoration of the Cretaceous uplift of the Harz Mountains,North Germany: evidence for the geometry of a thick-skinned thrust

International Journal of Earth Sciences - Reverse movement on the Harz Northern Boundary Fault was responsible for the Late Cretaceous uplift of the Harz Mountains in northern Germany. Using the...     

The sedimentology of an ephemeral fluvial–aeolian succession

Ephemeral fluvial systems are commonly associated with arid to semi-arid climates. Although their complex sedimentology and depositional settings have been described in much detail, depositional models depicting detailed lateral and vertical relationships, and interactions with coeval depositional environments, are lacking compared to well-recognized meandering and braided fluvial systems. This study critically evaluates the applicability of current models for ephemeral fluvial systems to an ancient arid fluvial example of the Lower Jurassic Kayenta Formation of the Colorado Plateau, USA. The study employs detailed sedimentary logging, palaeocurrent analysis and photogrammetric panels across the regional extent of the Kayenta. A generic model that accounts for the detailed sedimentology of a sandy arid ephemeral fluvial system (drawing upon both ancient and geomorphological studies) is developed, along with analysis of the spatial and temporal interactions with the aeolian setting. Results show that the ephemeral system is dominated by laterally and vertically amalgamated, poorly channelized to sheet-like elements, with abundant upper flow regime flat beds and high sediment load structures formed between periods of lower flow regime conditions. Through interaction with a coeval aeolian system, most of the fluvial deposits are dominated by sand-grade sediment, unlike many modern ephemeral fluvial systems that contain a high proportion of conglomeratic and/or finer grained mudstone and siltstone deposits. During dominantly fluvial deposition, high width to thickness ratios are observed for channelized and sheet-like elements. However, with increasing aridity, the aeolian environment becomes dominant and fluvial deposition is restricted to interdune corridors, resulting in lower width to thickness ratio channels dominated by flash-flood and debris-flow facies. The data presented here, coupled with modern examples of ephemeral systems and flood regimes, suggest that ephemeral flow produces and preserves distinctive sedimentological traits that can not only be recognized in outcrops, but also within core.