Carbon care project by Lucia Gombi

ISBN: 9788896463123

A vision towards low carbon economy: new challenges for agriculture and forestry sectors. The case studies of CARBON.CARE project

CARBON.CARE project “improvement of CARBON

sequestration practices in agricultural and forestry

sectors towards low-CArbon REgional energy patterns”, which is part of the LoCaRe initiative, is coﬁnanced by the European Regional Development

Fund in the frame of the INTERREG IVC Programme 2007-2013.

This publication reﬂects the views only of the author, and the Authorities of the INTERREG IVC Programme cannot be held responsible for any use

which may be made of information contained therein.

Communication project and printing: Lucia Gombi - Tipograﬁa Centoversuri www.locareproject.eu www.i4c.eu

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Authors Elena Tamburini Laboratory of Tecnopole Land&WaterTech, Ferrara Marco Meggiolaro Laboratory of Tecnopole Land&WaterTech, Ferrara Sandro Bolognesi Laboratory of Tecnopole Land&WaterTech, Ferrara Celia Martínez CETEMAS, Wood and Forest Technology Center, Asturias Uroš Brankovič Centre for Sustainable Rural Development of Kranj Lorena Berdasco CETEMAS, Wood and Forest Technology Cente, Asturias

Summary Addressing patterns for low carbon-economy regions Forests and ďŹ elds: our allies against climate change

CARBON.CARE: improving carbon sequestration practices in the agricultural and forestry sector

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Chapter 1: Carbon emission reduction and removal strategies in the primary sector 1.1. CO2 emissions strategies and policies: a worldwide outlook and the European Union commitments

1.2. The regional strategies in the CARBON.CARE regions

1.2.1. The Province of Ferrara

1.2.3. The Gorenjska Region

1.2.2. The Principality of Asturias

Chapter 2: Management alternatives to address carbon stock changes in the agricultural and forestry sector 2.1. Environmental impacts of agricultural productions using life

cycle assessment (LCA) methodology: the case study of Ferrara province

sequestration in wood products: the case study in Asturias

wood construction sectors: the case study of Gorenjska region

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2.2. Forest management in chestnut coppice and its role in carbon 2.3. Management alternatives for forestry, biomass energy and

Conclusions: Towards a low-carbon energy patterns in the primary sector: the lesson learnt

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Appendix Annex 1: Moving to a competitive low carbon economy

132

References

143

Annex 2: The Life Cycle Assessment methodology Project team

Project partners

136 146 147

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Foreword 1

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In the wake of COP 15 there was an urgent need for actions in each country and each region to reduce CO2 emissions. Six European regions - Southern Denmark, Västra Götaland (Sweden), Asturias (Spain), Gorenjska (Slovenia), Emilia-Romagna (Italy), and Zeeland (the Netherlands) – joined together to set up a project in the framework of INTERREG IVC to deSix European regions have joivelop low carbon soned forces in the project Lolutions. CaRe. The objective is to The objective of the develop low carbon solutions LoCaRe project is to at regional and local level and show the ways to develop a low carbon contribute to economic economy regionally growth at the same time and locally by reducing energy consumption, increasing the use of renewable energy sources and creating green jobs. LoCaRe works along the lines of three overall themes: New Energy, New Leadership and New Climate. These themes are the leading principles for the project activities.

Addressing patterns for low carbon-economy regions

As LoCaRe is a mini-programme, we set up six Sub-projects to deal with cross-cutting issues, such as renewable energy in local energy systems, carbon capture and carbon storage, procurement practices, low carbon territorial planning and empowerment of citizens and enterprises. Municipalities, universities and many other organisations in our regions have developed new methods and approaches in the six Sub-projects. Together, we have identiﬁed a number of good practices, success factors and barriers to a Low Carbon Economy. But most importantly: we have achieved a number of results that you can use in your local area to pave the way to reduce energy consumption, to use renewable energy sources or to promote business opportunities, such as: • Training of European Sustainability Ambassa dors in day care centres and schools • Locally web based Biomass Market Places for suppliers of biomass and potential customers • Voluntary Agreements between SMEs and local authorities to reduce energy consum ption • Involving retailers to promote sustainable con sumption and behaviours • New methods to involve citizens in establi shing local sustainable energy planning • New approaches to natural carbon sinks in local agriculture and forests

The Sub-project CARBON.CARE has dealt with the subject “Carbon Sinks, Carbon Capture and Storage”. During the last two years, the LT Land&Water Technological Laboratory of Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development Kranj in Slovenia and CETEMAS, Centro Tecnológico Forestal de la Madera from Asturias have exchanged experiences, identiﬁed good practices and developed new methods to establish natural carbon sinks. The present publication is the compiled results of this work and we hope that you will enjoy reading it. We also hope that you will get inspiration to start up similar activities in your own area to work with us towards a Low Carbon Economy. LoCaRe runs until December 2013. We continue to develop and publish results in the year to come, so please check our website for more information, join our activities and follow our results on www.locareproject.eu

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Foreword 2

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Soils, forests and agriculture are all natural reservoirs that can accumulate and store carbon for an indefinite period of time. In other words, they are natural carbon sinks. Through different types of innovations, the natural sequestration that takes place in these reservoirs can be enhanced either by artificial means (e.g. carbon sequestration from fossil fuels and biomass and artificially storage, carbon capture and storage) or more naturally (e.g. enhancing the density of carbon in agriculture and in forests, carbon sinks). Over the recent years, agriculture and forestry have made major progresses in terms of reconciling production with the need to manage natural resources sustainably and to preserve the environment. However, these positive trends should be enhanced to

Forests and fields: our allies against climate change

spark a green revolution in the European primary sector and this could be achieved only by testing diﬀerent management alternatives, by circulating information between research bodies, economic operators and territorial administrations. Indeed, there are both business potentials and planning and leadership challenges in implementing sounding and organized carbon sequestration practices in the primary sector, as a mean of mitigating the climate change patters. Basically, there is a need to transpose innovation into the primary sector, notably to enhance the energy eﬃciency, productivity growth and ability to adapt to climate change. Similar conclusions have been addressed by the European Commission in the recent initiative launched at the beginning of 2012 “European Innovation Partnership - Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability” that underlines the role of research and innovation as key elements in preparing the European Union for future challenges and, with particular reference to the primary sector, expresses the need to bridging the gap between management practices and science through smart networking. The results achieved by CARBON.CARE, achieved

through an international cooperation have inspired a successful bridging between research and market, new analytic approaches, bottom-up dialogue among farmers and their corporations, administrations, advisory services and academics. This kind of approach should help translating research results into innovation, quicker mainstreaming of innovation into practice, giving a systematic feedback from practice to science and ﬁnally raising awareness on the need for joint eﬀorts to invest in sustainable innovation in the primary sector. This publication - that focuses on the three case studies implemented in Emilia-Romagna, in the Principado de Asturias and in Gorenjska to design new approaches in the forest and agricultural local CO2 sequestrations and carbon stock changes - proposes a vision towards low carbon economy for agriculture and forestry sectors applicable at a wider scale.

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executive summary

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d CARBON.CARE: It is widely recognized that the primary sector has signiďŹ cant climate change mitigation potential: roughly, a third of the total emissions of carbon into the atmosphere since 1850 has resulted from land use change (and the remainder from fossil-fuel emissions). In this frame, soil and forests have a large inďŹ&#x201A;uence on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) - the most important global warming gas emitted by human activities: therefore, agricultural and forestlands can play a key role as part of a comprehensive strategy to slow the accumulation of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. Agricultural greenhouse gas emissions come from several sources: agricultural soil management, that accounts for about 60 percent of the total emissions from the agricultural sector, enteric fermentation from livestock, since methane is produced as part of the normal digestive processes in animals, manure management and carbon dioxide from fossil fuel consumption. On the other hand, sustainable practices such as organic farming, reduction of tillage and conservation of grassland store carbon have the potential to prevent CO2 emission. Organic material as mature and green waste is also huge source of sustainable energy. At the same time, forest ecosystems capture and store carbon dioxide, making a major contribution to the mitigation of climate change. Growing trees sequester large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The carbon is used to build the plant and the oxygen is released back into the atmosphere. An increase in biomass from the growth of forests (both above ground and below ground) provides a carbon sink. As long as the wood does not decompose or is not burned or otherwise destroyed, the carbon is maintained in the wood and the wood continues to be a carbon sink. Trees harvested for building materials maintain the carbon in the new structure (houses, etc.) for decades. Wood disposed of in a solid waste disposal site provides an almost per-

improving carbon sequestration practices in the agricultural and forestry sector Marco Meggiolaro

manent carbon sink. The growth of new trees planted on harvested areas sequesters additional carbon. Forests, agriculture land and climate change are mutually linked also in ways that extend beyond carbon. Climate change and warming could negatively change agriculture and forest ecosystems and their production patterns. These would change the capacity of forests and soil to provide above mentioned products and environmental services. Projections show that in Southern Europe, climate change would reduce crop productivity and in Central and Eastern Europe, forest productivity could decline. Nevertheless,

Rural landscape in Ferrara

insufficient motivation tools hamper an optimal forest management, while a very serious obstacle is represented by inactive forest with a very important share of forests, that could play a key-role to make such territory a full-potential low carbon regions. This is a similar situation for agriculture, where changes in land-use management that increase carbon storage provide multiple benefits (erosion control, water quality protection, and improved wildlife habitat) could justify new practices for biomass-based substitutes for fossil fuels, and farmers could deal with a responsible new green-business if adequately informed of cost/benefit scenarios. These means that many agricultural mitigation and forestall management options represent "win-win" situations, in that there are important side benefits, in addition to CO2 mitigation, that could be achieved. Therefore, a combined effort between scientific agencies and public authorities could definitely contri-

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executive summary

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bute at integrating new environmental-friendly patterns in the primary sector productive chain, thus addressing multiplier effect across the territory in line with the overall EU strategy of reducing CO2 emissions of 20% by 2020. Starting from these premises, the general objective of CARBON.CARE project, implemented in the territories of Ferrara (Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy), Gjon (Principado de Asturias, Spain) and Kranj (Gorenjska Region, Slovenia), is to design new approaches in the forest and agricultural local CO2 sequestrations and carbon stock changes by comparing different management alternatives, with the final aim of facilitating agreements between public administrations and farmers / forestall operators. This objective is pursued through an integrated pool of actions that consists in: • the EVALUATION of some of the most representatives best practices experienced in partners regions in carbon sequestration and carbon storage sector and the analysis of their potential contribution and adaptation at local scale in line with EU environmental and sustainable energy legislation; • the ELABORATION of a joint methodological approach for CO2 reduction & removal and the analysis of the potential carbon stock changes due to different management alternatives (agricultural and forestry) thanks to local technical assessments that adopts amore integrated vision-approach, such as the Life Cycle Assessment; • the DEVELOPMENT of awareness and capacity building programmes addressed to local policy makers, forest owners, farmers and experts to: (1) advance public understandings of the carbon sequestration and carbon storage and the need for stricter energy conservation policies; (2) to motivate and support inactive forest owners and farmers towards bioeconomy patters by improving the local networks of technical assistance, on the base of pilot

cooperation agreements with public authorities and private stakeholders. The main result of CARBON.CARE project is the elaboration of recommendations and strategies (including also legislative, technical, incentive-based initiatives to be included in the Rural Development Programmes) in the forest and agricultural local sequestrations and scalingup of beneﬁts through consultation processes with local authorities.

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Forestall resources and wood economy

Being the project part of LoCaRe programme, an INTERREG IVC initiative promoted by the European Union, the higher purpose is to diﬀuse the project results at a larger scale in Europe through the development of exchange schemes and networking processes with other territories that share similar challenges. CARBON.CARE project is coordinated by LT Land&WaterTech (Tecnopolo, University of Ferrara, Italy) and is participated by CETEMAS Centro TecnológicoForestal de la Madera (Spain) and the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development Kranj.

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CARBON EMISSION REDUCTION AND REMOVAL STRATEGIES IN THE PRIMARY SECTOR

1.1.1 Worldwide outlook

Public awareness of the human responsibility on climate change has risen sharply in the last years and an increasing number of businesses, organizations and individuals are looking to minimize their impact on the climate. The certainty that climate change is human-induced has been progressively strengthened primarily by the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) (reaching “very likely” in the fourth assessment report) (1,2) . An indicative target of temperature increase of +2°C (compared to pre-industrial average temperature) has been indicated to be sufficient to avoid significant impacts. This objective is explicitly considered by the European Union, and mentioned in the Copenhagen Accord. The scientific community has shown that long term GHG concentrations should be stabilized at 450 ppm CO2 in order to conserve a 50% probability of remaining below this 2°C increase threshold. Emission reductions compatible with this target stabilization level, assume a minimum reduction of 20-40% up to 2050 and 75-80 % at 2100 foresight with respect to 1990 emission levels. The unavoidable effort to effectively reduce the threat of climate change must get through comprehensive and stringent policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, at national and international levels, and, at the same time, through voluntary individual and corporate climate action. A transition to a low carbon society by 2050 implies a real changes in human behaviours towards a large-scale adoption of low energy technologies, in particular in industrial and primary sectors, buildings and transport (3). Two factors have to be taken in consideration. Since 1971, not only the global emissions of carbon dioxide have risen by 106%, or on average 1.9% per year, but a significant changing in wor-

CARBON.CARE:

1.1 - CO2 emissions strategies and policies: a worldwide outlook and the European Union commitments Elena Tamburini

ldwide balance has occurred. In 1971, the current OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries were responsible for 67% of the world CO2 emissions. As a consequence of rapidly rising emissions in the developing world, the OECD contribution to the total fell, in 2009, to 42%. By far, the largest increases in non-OECD countries were in Asia, where China's emissions of CO2

from fuel combustion (coal, in particular) have risen by 5.8% per annum between 1971 and 2009 (4). Two signiďŹ cant downturns in OECD CO2 emissions happened, following the oil shocks of the mid1970s and early 1980s. Emissions from the economies in transition declined over the last decade, helping to oďŹ&#x20AC;set the OECD increases between 1990 and the present. However, this decline did not stabilize global emissions as emissions in developing countries continued to grow. With the eco-

nomic crisis in 2008-09, world CO2 emissions declined by 1.5% in 2009. However, early indicators sug-

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gest that growth in CO2 emissions rebounded in 2010 (5). If current laws and policies remain the same, world energy consumption is projected to grow by 50 per-

1.1.1 Worldwide outlook

cent by 2030, according to U.S. government energy statistics released by the Energy Information Administration (6). Global energy demand will grow despite the projections of longterm sustained high world oil prices, the report says. Coalâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s share of world energy use has increased sharply over the past few years, and without signiďŹ cant changes in existing laws and poli-

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Domestic GHG emissions in EU-15 and EU-27 between 1990 and 2008. (Source: EEA 2011)

cies robust growth is likely to continue. In 2010 we broke all records by entering more than 33 billion tonnes of CO2 in atmosphere. Half a billion tons more than in 2009. This increase was

(A)

(B)

Million tonnes of CO2 related to the net effect of emissions from traded fossil fuels (A) and embodied in traded goods and services (B) in 2004 (Source: Davis et al., 2011)

due to a 3% to Chinese consumer, a 1.5% to those in the U.S. and about 1% to Indians, whereas countries that have signed the Kyoto Protocol, such as the European Union, have reduced their emissions by 8% compared to 1990 levels. However, it’s worthwhile noting that European Union countries have subcontracted emissions in China, from which energy-importing goods, as seen in the "global ﬂows of carbon": Figure highlights the global supply chain of CO2 emissions, where largest net exporters (blue) and importers (red) of emissions related to traded fuels and consumer goods is depicted. Fluxes to and from Europe are aggregated to include all 27 member states of the European Union (7). World nuclear capacity had been projected to rise from 374 GWatt in 2005 to 498 GWatt in 2030, but post-Fukushima a signiﬁcant "contraction" is occurred, so the projections of fossil Comparison of World Population and CO2 emission in 2004 (Source: British Petroleum, 2010)

fuel consumption up to 2025 and related CO2 emissions is tending to increase rapidly. Still on the subject of global carbon supply chain, the 2010 world energy statistics (8) show that 44% of total CO2 emission comes from 17% of the world total population (developed

(A)

(B)

Global anthropogenic GHG emissions in 2004 (A) and GHG emissions by sector (B) in 2004. Error margin estimated to be in the order of 30-50% (Source: IPCC, 2007)

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1.1.1 Worldwide outlook

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nations) while the rest 83% of the world population (developing and least developed) contributes to the rest half of the total emissions: Emissions of the GHGs covered by the Kyoto Protocol increased by about 70% (from 28.7 to. 49.0 GtCO2-eq) from 1970–2004 (by 24% from 1990–2004), with carbon dioxide (CO2) being the largest source, having grown by about 80%: The Kyoto Protocol includes 6 greenhouse gases and its respective Global Warming Potential (GWP). Different greenhouse gases have a different impact on the atmosphere; GWP is the estimated measure of how much a given mass of greenhouse gas will contribute to global warming. The GWP used by the IPCC R4 is calculated over a period of 100 years and uses 1 tonne of CO2 as the baseline (GWP of 1). The greenhouse gases included are: • Carbon Dioxide (CO2) = GWP of 1 • Methane (CH4) = GWP of 25 • Nitrous Oxide (N2O) = GWP of 298 • Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC)= GWP of 1,430 to 14,800 • Perfluorocarbons (PFC) = GWP of 7,500 • Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) = GWP of 22,300

Source: IPCC, 2006

At worldwide level, agriculture and forestry together are responsible for about 30% of greenhouse gas emissions (14,7 GtCO2-eq per year), partly from loss of carbon from soils and vegetation and partly from agricultural activities producing methane and nitrous oxides (9). About one third of global land is used for agriculture. Two thirds of that land is grassland, on third cropland. Forests cover about 25%. Over time, shifts have occurred from forested land to agricultural land, consistent with the increase in the world population and the need for food. Over the last 40 years agricultural land has increased by about 500 million hectares or (10). Agriculture and forestry are very diﬀerent from other economic sectors when it comes to GHG emissions, because both represent at the same time enormous reser-

voirs of CO2 in the form of organic matter and wood. So emissions are not only determined by activities that generate emissions, but also by the loss or gain in these carbon reservoirs (sequestration). The next ﬁgure shows the man-made carbon ﬂuxes together with the emissions of CH4 and N2O from

agricultural practices and the amounts of carbon stored in reservoirs (11). Although there are large amounts (fluxes) of CO2 going into agricultural crops and soils, there are equally large fluxes going out (digestion and decomposition of agricultural crops and crop residues). The net flux is therefore small. Net CO2 emissions due to the slowly decreasing carbon content of agricultural soils are less than 1% of the total emissions per year (6,2 GtCO2-eq). Emissions from the forestry sector are predominantly caused by loss from the large carbon reservoirs through deforestation and forest degradation, decomposition of wood residues and some emissions of CH4 from burning and N2O from fertilized managed forests. Wood products are a temporary storage of carbon (namely, wooden house), even though this represent a very small amount compared to what is stored in vegetation an soils. If harvesting is done sustainably, biofuels or bioenergy obtained from crop residues, crops, wood o wood waste do not contribute to emissions. Since CO2 is taken up again in vegetation, in reality this sustainability assumption is not met, because of intervention of fossil fuel use for harvesting and processing. As it is widely recognized, primary sector has also a significant climate change mitigation potential, which could change its position from the second largest emitter to a much smaller emitter or even a net sink. The main three mitigation strategies are reforesting degraded lands, implementing sustainable agricultural practices on existing lands, and slowing tropical deforestation.

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1.1.1 Worldwide outlook

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These three strategies will be more eďŹ&#x20AC;ective when done in con-

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Spread of mitigation potential for greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture over different regions (numbers indicate relative importance of potential in regions); based on SRES B2 scenario (Source: IPCC, 2007).

cert., in fact, improved agriculture practices will help to enable forest restoration, as improved practices and corresponding increases in agricultural yields will stabilize land-use change and reduce competition for use of lands more suited for forest cover. Similarly, improved agriculture practices will reduce pressure on the need to clear more land, usually at the expense of forests. Sustainably managed new forests will also reduce timber and fuelwood pressures on existing natural forest, possibly avoiding deforestation. Many land-based opportunities to increase carbon stocks or avoid carbon emissions exist. Where land uses have changed to become predominantly agricultural, restoration of the carbon content in cultivated organic soils has a high per area potential and represents the area of greatest mitigation potential in agriculture. The mitigation eďŹ&#x20AC;ect of modern bioenergy is realized mainly in the energy supply and transport sector. That is where the replacement of fossil fuel emissions happens. The supply of biomass however comes mostly from the agriculture and forestry sector, except for some waste from households and industrial processes. The big question therefore is how much biomass can be

supplied in a sustainable manner, so that food security, biodiversity protection, and water supply are not threatened. To what extent fossil energy is saved and CO2 is mitigated depends on the feedstock (kind of crop used) and the conversion technology that converts the feedstock into bio-energy. Agriculture and forestry are heavily regulated: in agriculture, because food security (the guaranteed supply of adequate food) is generally seen as politically very important; and in forestry, because forests are a common good, often located on public land. This has led to a variety of regulations, price controls, subsidies, and other policy actions. This high policy density has important implications for ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from these sectors. In agriculture, price signals are the primary factor that influences agricultural practices. And these price signals do not only come from the markets, but subsidies play a very dominant role. In addition, agriculture is very sensitive to macro-economic policy changes. IPCC strongly promotes and recommends the most promising policy changes in agriculture, at worldwide level: • Banning burning of crop residues and grasslands as has already been implemented in China, South Africa, and the EU. They have benefits for air quality improvement. Since farmers do the burning in the belief that it releases nutrients more quickly, information programmes and other support may be needed to help farmers com ply with such bans • Set-aside policies as practiced in the USA and EU: they have additional advantages for improving the ecological conditions in rural areas. With current high food prices there is a tendency however to abandon them (as the EU is currently considering) • Soil fertility policies in the form of promoting reduced/zero tillage (practiced in Bra zil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) • Mandatory land restoration of degraded lands, such as through China’s Land Re clamation regulation of 1988 • Acquisition by State or private organizations of agricultural lands for nature con servation purposes and managing those lands as protected areas (as done in China and many other countries for wildlife or water quality management) Because of nowadays, specific climate policies aiming at reduction of N2O and CH4 emissions are basically non-existent, IPCC includes in promising policies to limit CH4 and N2O emissions include:

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1.1.1 Worldwide outlook

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• •

Regulations on mandatory storage of manure (in live stock farming operations) and subsidies for bio gas installations Subsidizing or regulating reduced fertilizer application in ecologically sensitive areas Air quality regulations controlling nitrogen oxides and ammonia from agriculture for reasons of air quality improvement

The role of price signals in forestry is even stronger than in agriculture. It is very profitable to convert forest into crop or grazing land, because the financial returns on the land can increase more than a hundred times when turning a forest into an oil palm plantation: Implementation and enforcement of regulations on deforestation have been weak, in some countries because of corruption amongst officials. Controlling deforestation on private lands is difficult in many countries. International certification schemes for sustainably produced wood are still fragmented, strictly voluntary, and only affect a small percentage of the trade in wood. That is why most policies to reduce deforestation so far have been ineffective. The general consensus is that stronger financial incentives than currently available will be able to reduce deforestation. The idea is that payment for maintaining a forest is justifiable because that forest provides environmental services in the form of acting as a carbon sink, keeping an amount of carbon out of the atmosphere, and preserving biological diversity as well as providing clean water. To overcome the barrier of high upfront investment in tree planting for private land owners, governments often use investment subsidies on planting or tax deductions on investments as the primary policy instrument. In areas where demand for food is high, such afforestation programmes can only work if agricultural productivity goes up. Appropriate agricultural policies therefore are a necessary

condition for successful aﬀorestation.

1.1.2 EU Commitments

In the long term, and in the absence of any current global postKyoto agreement, as it is well known, by 2020, the total EU-27 greenhouse gas emissions were projected to the commitment target of a 20% reduction, unilaterally decided by the European Council in March 2007. This projection was based on Member States estimates which take into account even all existing domestic policies and measures (14). The current reduction commitment is mainly implemented through Directive 2009/29/EC2 and Decision 406/2009/EC3 which require sectors participating in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (15) to jointly reduce emissions by 21 % and non-trading sectors (under the Eﬀort Sharing Decision, ESD) by 10 % below 2005 levels. While sectors in the EU ETS are regulated at the EU level, it will be the responsibility of Member States to deﬁne and implement policies and measures to limit emissions of sectors under the ESD. There are other policy instruments, such as the Renewable

Energy Directive that could also contribute to reaching the target. Taken together, these various policy initiatives are known as the Climate and Energy Package (European Parliament, 2008). It has six components: • revisions to the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme; • an “effort-sharing” decision on Member State tar gets for an overall 10 percent reduction in green house gas emissions from sectors of the economy not covered by the Emissions Trading Scheme; • revisions to the Fuel Quality directive; • a regulation on CO2 emissions from cars, under which car companies will face financial penalties if the CO2 emissions from their new cars exceed specified limits; • a legal framework to provide for carbon capture and storage; • the first reading of the new Directive on the Pro motion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources. Agriculture plays only a small part in the economies of European Union (EU) member countries, accounting for about 2% of GDP and 5% of EU employment. But in terms of its impact on the environment and natural resources, agriculture’s role is more significant accounting for 45% of EU total land use and over 30% of total water use. In view of the growing public concern with environmental quality and natural resource use, EU member countries, as with many other OECD countries, have substantially increased their public expenditure on agro-environmental programmes over the 1990s, in part, to offset the negative impacts from the prevalence of production enhancing based policies.

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1.1.2 EU Commitments

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The 1992 CAP reforms gave higher priority to the environment within agricultural policy, and this trend is continuing now under the up to date discussion on the new CAP programme. These reforms are beginning to improve the domestic and international allocation of resources, and reverse the harmful environmental impacts associated with commodity and input

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Total GHGs emissions by sector in EU-27 in 2008 (Source: EEA 2011)

speciďŹ c policy measures, by reducing incentives to use polluting chemical inputs and to farm environmentally sensitive land. Future developments in domestic environmental measures and multilateral environmental agreements are also expected to have an increasing inďŹ&#x201A;uence on the EUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s farming sector for several reasons. Progress in reducing environmental pollution from industrial and household waste is shifting the focus to the agricultural sector, as its share in total emissions for certain pollutants, especially nitrates and phosphates, has risen. As a result there is growing pressure that the tax and regulatory measures that are commonly used to control pollution from industry and households

should also be extended to cover the agricultural sector which has often been exempt from such measures, that is to say the application of the polluter-pays-principle. The EU’s 6th Environment Action Programme (16) highlights the need to further deepen the integration of environmental concerns in to other policies, including agriculture. There are an increasing number of multilateral environmental agreements which have implications for agriculture, some operating at regional scales such as the Convention for the Prevention of Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention) and the European Landscape Convention, and others operating at the global scale, for example the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The commitments established under these agreements are already having an impact on agriculture in EU countries, for example, the control of nutrient and pesticide run-oﬀ into international waters; the gradual phase out of the use of the methyl

bromide pesticide as an ozone depleting substance; and the implementation of national biodiversity action plans, which include biodiversity conservation in agriculture. The quantity of agricultural production is affected by the financial resources available to agriculture (both returns from the market and government support), the incentives and disincentives facing farming, and the kinds of management practices and technologies adopted by farmers. These practices and technologies impact on the productivity of the natural resources (e.g. soil) and purchased inputs (e.g. fertilizers) used by farmers. Depending on the management and productivity of agriculture’s use of resources and inputs this will affect the rate of depletion and degradation of soils and water; the flows of harmful emissions (e.g. nutrients) into soils, water, air and the atmosphere; and the quantity and quality of plant and animal resources (i.e. biodiversity and habitats) and landscape features. Emissions removal or mitigation actions relating to the so called LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry) sector are complicated by a number of inherent properties (17). It would require significant land use changes from e.g. cropland to (permanent) grassland or forest, and is likely to be almost impossible for EU27 on a short term, i.e. by 2020. Several projections from scenario studies on biofuel and bio-renewables suggest that the area of cropland in EU27 to meet demands for more biomass may increase alongside with growing demand for food and feed. Also, afforestation will have a small effect on the short term as growth and carbon sequestration will start slowly, and relatively

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1.1.2 EU Commitments

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large areas are needed. The total technical and biophysical mitigation potential in Europe (all practices and all GHGs) by 2030 has been estimated at 750 MtCO2 per year. For soil carbon management in the agriculture sector the technical mitigation potential was estimated at about 200 MtCO2 per year (18). The realization of the potential would be difficult due to low cost-effectiveness of some of the measures, uncertainties in the estimates of the mitigation potentials, negative impacts of some measures on agricultural production. The potential for mitigation through soil carbon management in the agriculture (cropland) sector was estimated by Lesschen (19) at approximately 67 MtCO2-eq per year for the EU27 up to 2030. Potential for mitigation of the two main forestry activities, afforestation and forest management, have been estimated to be about 120 MtCO2 and 65-105 MtCO2 per year, respectively. These agriculture and forestry potentials are not distributed evenly between Member States. For example, the potential for mitigation through agricultural soil carbon management is concentrated in only six Member States. Similarly, the forestry mitigation potentials through Afforestation and Forest management activities are mainly concentrated in 8 of the 27 Member States. Diverse regional conditions, relating to e.g. climate, soil and agricultural production systems, throughout Europe play an important role in defining the limits of mitigation possibilities. Therefore, it is necessary to formulate policies that take into account specific regional conditions and feasibility of mitigation (and of any related monitoring and reporting) while taking advantage of the opportunities different land-based vegetation systems can offer. Policies must also recognize synergies between different sectors and environmental policies, taking account of their linkages. A review of climate policy in non-EU countries demonstrates that different countries are considering or implementing diffe-

rent approaches to LULUCF mitigation. Some are considering how LULUCF activities can contribute oďŹ&#x20AC;sets within a market-based trading scheme, while others are developing national action programmes to directly support LULUCF mitigation measures. Some cases involve a mix of both approaches.

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Although the various EU-wide policies discussed above encourage common goals across Member States, a considerable State-level variation in terms of the degree of participation in biofuel requirements, incentives, production, and use, still exists and must be overcome to deďŹ nitely win the European challenges against climate changes and carbon emissions. Stakeholder meetin g on role of agricu lture and forestry August 2012 in Br in EU climate pol ussels. Some 80-90 icy, 30 stakeholders partici pated

1 1.2.1 The Province of Ferrara

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The Province of Ferrara, located in the North East of the Emilia Romagna Region, close to Veneto and Lumbardy, has a territory of 2.632 Km2 for 358.972 inhabitants (ref. 2010): Enterprises are principally devoted to services and agriculture, with more than 8.000 of farms for 180.000 ha of UAA (Source: ISTAT 6Â°Censimento Generale Agricoltura, 2011). Higher relevance of agricultural sector value added on the overall economy, than the regional and national averages values, is registered within the Province (6,7% against a regional value of 3,2% and a national value of 2,5%)(Source: Nomisma, 2011). The employment rate in agriculture is the highest in Emilia Romagna region and one of the highest in Italy (10,1% against a regional 4,4% and a national 4,2%) These data allow to understand that agriculture is a fundamental pillar of provincial economy. The local agricultural production is principally concentrated on cereals (around 65%) and orchard and vegetables (around 20%). Italy ratiďŹ ed the Kyoto Protocol on 1 June 2002. The greenhouse gas emission reduction tarAgricultural landscape in Ferrara get for Italy in the period 2008-2012 under the Kyoto Protocol is 6.5% less than greenhouse gas emissions in 1990. Italy has chosen the year 1990 as

CARBON.CARE:

1.2 - The regional strategies in the CARBON.CARE regions Elena Tamburini, Celia Martinez, Uroš Brankovič

the base year both for the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), and

Gross Primary Production (Source: ISTAT 6°Censimento Generale Agricoltura)

the other GHG’s. Promoting sustainable agricultural and forestry activities, and the related carbon sinks was one of the key-points of the National Action Plan since 2003, containing the government’s strategy to achieve Italy’s emissions reduction target under the Kyoto Protocol. From then on,

: livestock number, use of fertilizers and crop surface. Livestock number and fertilizer consumption have also been aﬀected by the enforcement of Directive 91/676/EC (the so-called Nitrates Directive) both directly and through its provisions related to the establishment of Codes of Good Agricultural Practice. Italy is also the country in Europe with the highest surface area devoted to organic farming (around 1 million hectares) and this could have an impact on the total amount of fertilizers used and on N2O emissions from soil. A decline in current trends of N2O emissions from soil might be obtained through a more rational use of fertilisers, as prescribed by the Code of Good Agricultural Practice (i.e. slow release nitrogen). To this regard, Italy has been one of the ﬁrst countries of the European Union to draw up, under the provisions of EU Directive no. 676/91, a “Code of Good Agricultural Practice for the Protection of Water from Nitrates”, adopted under Ministerial Decree no. 86 of 19 April 1999. The Emilia-Romagna Region, in harmony with the outlines of the national and EU environmental policies,

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paid particular attention to programming and operative actions of the Region and the local institutions concerning these issues. In fact, Local Institutions are playing an active part in this process of “environmental saving awareness” to be applied to the economic and productive system, and in the last years several provincial, municipal and local actions have proven it, in several sectors (transportation, energy, buildings, industry). Those actions led the emilian territory to reach some models of excellence in the endogenous source management and conservation, and in the rational and eﬃcient use. Now, the eﬀort is to extend such awareness also to the rural sector.

. Such an integrates approach is perfectly aligned with the measures introduced by national/regional/local bodies in order to protect the environment and manage the natural resources more sustainably. Agriculture and forests system contribution to the reduction of CO2 and all GHG’s emissions has, as target, the regional program for rural development. The principal key-actions are: • forestation actions and forests improvement • research and sperimentation programme • promoting “biogas”, “biomass and “renewable sources mi croplants” projects • support to the production and development of local biomass • development and qualiﬁcation of agriculture

In this particular context, the Province of Ferrara has recently subscribed the European Covenant of Mayors, assuming the responsibility to draw up and approve a Local Plan of Actions for Sustainability. The initiative, launched by EU Commission in 2008, provided the commitment to reduce the GHG emissions through speciﬁc measures at local level, in terms of investments

in renewable energies, improvements in energy eﬃciency, application of best practices for a functional use of energy resources. It is coherent with the fact that the Province of Ferrara has ever been particularly interested to assume a real own responsibility in reaching the general goal to guide the local growing awareness for climate protection. Starting from the base, the idea is to obtain the goal through a list of actions, in accordance with other local actors, in order to try to give room to the ambitious vision of

In fact, the Province has been recently involved in another EU project on similar topics (as LACRe, Local Alliance for Climate Responsibility LIFE07ENV/IT/000357, now concluded; or ITACA, Innovative Transport Approach in Cities and metropolitan Areas - Programme Interreg IVC Inter-Power). As a strategy, the private entrepreneurs (farmers) should become more aware of the fact that there are a thousand ways to save energy, to use it more eﬃciently and thus in a more advantageous way, economically speaking, through such measures as mana-

gement improvements or resources optimization. From its side, the local public administration could become a dependable partner for farmers that are socially responsible or wish to become so, as it can provide decisive support to the realization of excellent actions. Vice-versa, farmers could become partners of the local administration and contribute to the creation of joint projects and the attainment of common goals. From a sort of such a social responsibility agreement viewpoint, local administrations have taken the role of a promoter of: • a new developmental model for the territory in spired by the principles of sustainability and the refore of the adoption of innovative policies as well as a uniﬁer of various social players • opportunities for the territorial actors to come to gether face to face and discuss issues on a local level. One ﬁnal essential element in the creation of a new local roundtable between farmers and the territory – through a multi-stakeholder approach – is the existence of shared values to take action to mitigate climate change. In this way, such a local low carbon economy based could go beyond the traditional relationships between public administrations and local economy, searching for new, innovative routes that could facilitate an active collaboration between public organization and farmers, generating an experience of the “virtuous circle” in order to attain complex goals, such as those related to climate protection.

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Departing from a provincial territorial level, the final aim of this strategy will be to join to the general regional effort of creating a “waterfall effect” in the diffusion of a culture of social responsibility, through the promotion of an environmental context that is more safeguarded and liveable, therefore more sustainable. Reaching a sustainable model for agriculture could be a value added approach firstly for local farmers, but also for all the people who live in rural areas as the Province of Ferrara, or use agricultural products. The effect of change in resource use and management practices in agriculture is frequently incremental and cumulative, taking a long time to be apparent. While community and institutioMechanical rural activities in Ferrara

nal attitudes and understanding on natural resource management are constantly evolving, there remains considerable lack of access to information and inadequate understanding of the long term eﬀect of agricultural activities on the environment. Starting the use of a best practices approach at the beginning by few farmers could then generate a wider and wider diﬀusion to the other, up to become a “normal” behaviour.

This perspective becomes even more interesting considering that in the new programming of the new CAP for the period 2014-2020 is given much prominence to the theme of "greening", namely, the commitment of the farm in relation to the conservation of the natural environment.

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1 1.2.2 The Principality of Asturias

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The Principality of Asturias is located in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula, it has a surface of 10.604 km2, and is bordered to the North by 334 km of coastline, bathed by the Cantabrian Sea. Asturias possesses 1,085,289 inhabitants, with an average population density of 102.3 inhabitants per km2. The region is divided in 78 municipalities, and the central metropolitan area accounts for 80% of the population with the largest cities and towns.

Asturias region lan

dscape

Asturian Economy The main characteristic of the economic structure of Asturias is the importance of the industrial sector that represents 21.6 % of the activity: agro-food, metal, chemical and mining are the main sectors with presence in Asturias. Services represent 62.6 % and have shown a very strong upward trend in the past decade. Construction accounts 13.8 % and the primary sector 1.8%. The importance and strength of Asturiasâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; industry can be clearly seen in its contribution to the regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Gross Added Value (GAV) (22.3%, that is 5% higher than the average for Spain in 2008). De-

spite this, the region has a very diverse economic structure where the services sector (especially company services) is of ever-growing importance for the regional economy (around 62% of the region’s GAV). In addition, Asturias’ productivity is clearly higher than the Spanish average; and foreign trade indicators (import-export coverage, exports, and degree of openness) have witnessed a positive trend over the last few years. Since 1985, the energy saving and the use of renewable energies are the focus of the regional action lines. In 2001, the Fundación Asturiana de la Energia (FAEN) was set up. FAEN works on diﬀerent activities related with energy and its principal aim is the consecution of general objectives to obtain the 12% of the inside energy consumed with renewable energy, marked by the European Union. Also to facilitate and collaborate in the materialization of investments showed on the Renewable Energy Promotion Plan. In addition, Principality of Asturias begun in 2008 the design of the Regional Strategy of Forestry Biomass, which expect to establish the lines of the

regional policy for the valorization of the forestry biomass and its sustainability use. Forest Sector in Asturias According to the National Forest Inventory III, about 72% of the one million hectares that has the Principality of Asturias is declared as forest land use (Figure below), and nearly 64% belong to private owners. Due to the climactic and geographical characteristics of Asturias, it oﬀers ideal conditions for the natural development, use and management of forestry resour-

Relative distribution of land use in Asturias (Gobierno del Principado de Asturias. Consejería de Medio Rural y Pesca. Dirección General de Política Forestal, 2011).

ces. However, in recent decades the rural areas have been abandoned, and the Asturian forest sector has suﬀered a negative and positive impacts. On one hand, a negative impact has happened because the forestland abandonment. And on the other hand, a positive eﬀect due to the increment of forest biomass in the forests.

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In Asturias, the most important forest income comes mainly from Eucalyptus, pine, chestnut and oak wood. These species form the basic raw materials used by wood and furniture companies. From the first two species there is almost 500,000 m3 of timber per year. However, there are challenges to incorporating into the traditional silviculture practices new concepts, such as Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification. These new action improve the quality of forest production chain, from preparation land to wood selling to the final consumers. The activities in the “wood chain” constitute one of the emerging sectors in the Asturian economy, characterized by their significant growth and drive.

Example of "wood chain" business sector

Activities related to wood have traditionally constituted one of the key sectors in the economy of Asturias, due to their growing levels of production and their ability to create jobs. Thus, Asturias has some 730 companies dedicated to wood and furniture, employing over 3,500 people. The sector has an annual turnover of more than 338 million, whilst turnover from exports is around 5

million per year. The group of foresters, an essential part of the timber business, is a group of twenty companies in the region that work forests to ensure the raw material for the other subsectors. Every 2 years, the International Silviculture and Forestry Fair (ASTURFORESTA) is held in Asturias. This is one of the most important, high-proﬁle events in Europe, where the most advanced technical resources in the forestry sector are presented. The primary process occurs in sawmills, which produce the boards and sheets used in the secondary process. This is where the largest subsector in the region comes into play (ranging from small carpentry ﬁrms to larger furniture manufacturers). Technological advances over the recent years have permitted primary process companies to develop considerably. The wood sector includes the manufacture of carpentry parts for the building industry and the furniture industry. Cooperation between the companies, facing the problem of the highly dispersed nature of the sector, has provided an excellent opportunity for development, allowing

companies to achieve excellent competitive advantages in several areas. The consolidation of the ”Asturian Furniture“ quality brand label has been one of the fundamental steps in the creation of a sector Cluster in Asturias, grouping together companies that carry out wood-related activities.

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Example of "wood chain" business sector

In 2009, the new Forest and Wood Technology Centre (CETEMAS) was founded in order to act as the neurological center for the forestry sector in Asturias. CETEMAS invests in research and development projects that are vital to the expansion and innovation of forest and wood product-based industries. Its mission is to promote healthy, diverse, productive and well managed forests and forest-based economies through the eﬃcient, sustainable use of the wood resources; to promote information exchange among staﬀ engaged in wood-related research and facilitate the shared use of research facilities; and to enhance research programmes and promote technology transfer to end users. CETEMAS is working on many areas

1.2.2 The Principality of Asturias

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related to forest sector, such as Technical, economic and environmental optimization of forest harvest operations ; Operation productivity and biomass production costs; Advice and support for forestry stakeholders to rationalize their production process; Wood technology: normalization, coatings, preservatives, drying, chemical modification; Wood building technology, mainly bridges; and with special importance in climate change and its implications for forest management. The potential implications of the climate change issue to the forest products industry are more complex than for any other industry. The forests that supply the industry’s raw material remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store the carbon, but not only in trees, also below ground in soils and root systems, and ultimately in forest products. These forests and their carbon sequestration potential are affected by management practices, climate and by the rise in atmospheric CO2. Otherwise, CETEMAS is promoting the calculation carbon footprint of wood products and forest companies. In this area CETEMAS is promoting in the forest sector the calculation of the total amount of greenhouse gases emissions (GHGs) associated with the life cycle of a product, organization or service. The Regional Service for Agri-food Research and Development (SERIDA) is another public body of the Principality of Asturias created through Asturian Law 5/1999, which aims to contribute to the modernization and improvement of the capacities of the regional agri-food sector by fomenting and carrying out agri-food technological research and development in order to achieve improvements in productivity, sector diversification and increased returns on primary assets. And PRODINTEC Foundation (Technological Centre for Industrial Production and Design) is another technological center which has a significant trajectory in the performance of works for the furniture sector in Asturias. This center has collaborated in the definition of the regulations for the Asturian Furniture brand, and has

also been responsible for publicizing the contents, philosophy, principles and the certification procedure for the use of the brand name for companies in the sector. All these centers have contributed to promoting research and development in the forest sector and also to incorporate new aspect related to low carbon in the sector. Lines of actions in the fight against climate change of the government of the principality of Asturias On 29 April 1998 in New York, Spain signed the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in Kyoto on 11 December 1997. The greenhouse gas emission reduction target for Spain in the period 2008-2012 under the Kyoto Protocol was 15% less than greenhouse gas emissions in 1990. Asturias is a region that currently complies with the Spanish objectives for Kyoto Protocol, but continues working on its commitments to the climate challenge. In the field of energy, implementing initiatives for the greater development of renewable energies, especially for on-shore wind energy, with 30 approved pro-

jects, 15 of them already developed. In the ﬁeld of sustainable mobility, with projects to encourage the use of public transport, such as the creation of the Transport Consortium and the dissemination of the use of the “travel card”, a ticket that allows you to change from one form of public transport to another.

Measuring the environmental impact in the wood supply chain

In the ﬁeld of policies relating to land classiﬁcation, fundamental in commitment to the climate, Asturias has a mature and modern legislation, and all munici-

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palities, without exception, have urban planning. The Government has established a framework for working with local councils, creating a network of sustainable cities. Approx. the 2/3 parts of the municipalities have already signed agreements with the Principality to perform energy audits and develop different activities to reduce over 20% of the energy bill. Therefore, municipal communities, chambers of commerce and investment centers could be interested parties in addition to the regional government. And in the field of education and awareness creation, exemplary actions were approved in 2008 by means of an Institutional Program of fighting against climate change. Agency of Climate Change in Asturias In July 2007 a regional Climate Change Agency has been set up to establish a Regional Mitigation and Adaptation Strategy in the region. This office has created an Asturias Expert Panel (CLIMAS), with 50 researchers from different universities and research centers. This group prepared an assessment of climate change impacts at regional level that was presented in 2009. This assessment has been the basis for the Regional Adaptation Strategy. Otherwise, Asturias has been working on promoting the sustainability as the basis for its present and future development, for improving the quality of life and de-coupling economy growth from greenhouse emissions. The agency is working on to highlight two main fields of work: the mitigation policies, and the adaptation procurements. For the region the policies of climate change are a priority. A relevant milestone of this public effort was the approval, on November 2008, of the Strategy of Sustainable Development of Asturias, the document in which a roadmap of aims and goals in the fields of energy, residues, land planning, social issues, etc. were settled.

Agricultural and Forestry Policy It is widely recognized that primary sector has significant climate change mitigation potential. Forests and soils have a large influence on atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the most important global warming gas emitted by human activities. Therefore, agricultural and forestlands can play a key role as part of a comprehensive strategy to slow the accumulation of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. There are three basic ways in which forest can contribute to greenhouse gas reduction efforts: conversion of non-forestlands to forests, preserving and increasing carbon in existing forests and agricultural soils, and growing biomass to be used for energy. Sequestrations activities can be carried out immediately, appear to present relatively cost-effective emission reduction opportunities, and may generate environmental co-benefits. In this context, Asturias has a Forestry Plan, which developing is getting an important increment of the forest area. The actions are aimed to the fires prevention, improvement of sanitary conditions in forests. Likewise, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) 2007-2013 is

in accordance with the objectives of Mitigation of Climate Change and its eﬀects. The challenge for the forest sector of the Asturian region is to develop further those aspects of the sector which are part of the green economy, such as sustainable consumption patterns, recycling and recovery of products, increased supply of renewable energy and ecosystem services. Like many regions in Europe that are proactively seeking to identify opportunities and related ﬁnancial, technical, and policy requirements to move towards "green growth" on a low-carbon path.

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1 1.2.3 The Gorenjska region

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Gorenjska region is located in the north-west of Slovenia with 2137 km2 of territory and around 200,000 inhabitants. This predominantly mountainous region in the Slovene Alps, with only some of ďŹ&#x201A;at and fertile land in the central part, and in the river valleys in the north and west, has a large proportion of less favorable areas for agriculture. More than 60% of the territory is cove-

Gorenjska region, forestall landscape

red by forests, while grassland and pastures prevail in the cathegory of arable land. Due to a big diversity of well-preserved nature, around 45% of the region is listed within the Natura 2000 network; here major share is represented by forests. Gorenjska was once known as the strongest industrial region in Slovenia, but after 1990 service sector has prevailed. Industry (35% of all employees) includes a high number of SMEs, and some medium-sized and highly technological companies of steel, metal and wooden products, electronic machinery and appliances. Agriculture, important also for the preservation of

the typical landscape, is dominated by dairy cattle breeding and forestry on a predominantly small sized farms. Thanks to the attractive nature of the Alpine mountains and lakes, tourism is one of the key economic sectors with high share of foreign visitors. Due to increased energy consumption, both in industry, agriculture, households and transport, CO2 emissions has been increasing both in Slovenia and on Gorenjska regional level. In order to fulﬁll obligations of EU membership about respecting and achieving goals agreed by Kioto Agreement, Slovenia adopted in 2003 Operational program for decreasing green house emissions for 8% by 2008 - 2012 period comparing to 1986. One of the goals of this program was also to minimize costs of fulﬁling targets of Kioto Agreement. But in spite of such goals, emissions were increasing also in the 2000-10 period and aftermath, with peak in 2008 when emissions surpassed those in 1986 for cca. 5%. As some of key instruments for decreasing CO2 emissions and to ensure sustainable regional development, Gorenjska and Slovenia, respectively, (should) intensively work in 3 sectors:

A. Sustainable forest management and conseqent forest carbon sink Forests of Gorenjska region cover more than 143 000 ha (around 66% of total territory). Main types of forests are beech, fir-beech, spruce-beech, and beechoak forests. Wood as the most important natural resource of Gorenjska has been always contributing significitantly to the development of industry and economy as whole, particularly of farms in hilly rural areas. In comparison to forest in the majority of other European countries, forest in most of Slovenia, also in Gorenjska, is generaly better preserved and has higher diversity of natural structures. Such a situation is a result of planned and attentive, t.i. sustainable or co-natural management of forests in the past, especially after 1945. Thanks to significant growth in size and quality, forest represents for Slovenia a very important factor for carbon sink which is taken into account of Kioto Agreement requirements. Slovene forests bind annualy up to 5 Mt of CO2, of which currently only 1,32 Mt CO2 are counted in for Kioto goals for CO2 emission reduction. Situation in forest management in Slovenia and Gorenjska region has been, however, deterioriating since 1991, after a wide-scale denationalization and privatisation of forests. Private owners now own some ¾ of all forests, while state and local communities own the rest of them. One of main charateristics of privately owned forest is a high land fragmentation. As one of the main con-

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sequences of that is a low explotation level of production potential in private forests; total annual cut in private forests is well bellow 60% of maximum possible cut deﬁned by forest management plans. The lack of forestry works in private forests is a big potential risk since the quality of Slovene forests, they directly and indirectly decrease their CO2 capture capability and even lead to a release substantial emissions of acummulated CO2 in a very short time (pests, ﬁres).

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Forestry works don e by private forest owners (right) and expert support provided by distric forest experts from Slovene Forest Ser vice (left) are key and mutua lly inseparable ele ments of sustainable for est management in Gorenjska (Author: Boštjan Škrlep)

One of the main problems of forest management in Slovenia and Gorenjska region has been weakening of the traditionally very qualitative expert support from public Slovene Forestry

Service to private forest owners. After the 1993 reform of public forestry sector, ''gozdna gospodarstva'' (forest management units) as their direct operational unit for forest works mainly in public, but also in private forests, were privatized as the most profitable units. The consultation units have remaind public, but are weak regarding the number of stuff (eg. district foresters) due to lack of finances and additional burdens of new ''paper'' taks (preparing different elaborates, permits, application for subsides for private owners, …). All these factors significantly infringed their services for private forest owners who after 1991 needed strong expert support due to new economical, social, political and environmental situation (market economy, demands for nature protection, multifunctional rural economy…). New subgroup of private forest owners, mainly as a ''product'' of denationalization after 1991, is a particulary big and almost untouched challenge. Most of it's members depend very little on forest, and are similarleast motivated for management of forests. Many of them don't even know location, size and situation in their fo-

rests. Potentials in this non-faming cathegory of forest owners are relatively big, as most of their fragmented properties are located in lowland areas where production condition for wood are more favorable for forest management, comparing to larger estates located in less accesable areas. Main challenge for forest experts is therefor to activate and support all these forest owners. District foresters need to take more active approach towards them with measures as networking within forst owners assocciations, joint marketing/selling of wood, wood certification… To cope with all these challenges, a set of financial and non-financial measures, created within Slovene Program for Rural development 2007-2013, is available to support and promote sustainable forest management of private owners. It is also planned that in new financial period 2013-2020 more finances will be available for expert support and market oriented actions for small forest owners.

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B. Increase of wooden biomass as a local renewable energy resource Gorenjska region has no suﬃcient regional energy resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Current suppy of heating energy is based on three major energy resources: heating oil, wood, and natural gas and hydropower. Energy sources include also partly exploited potential of Alpine rivers (mainly on Sava river) and streams, while wooden biomass potentials are based on the 50% to 80% of Gorenjska communities’ territory covered by forests. With increased need and consumption of energy in next decade, important aspect is also a drain of ﬁnancial resources out of the region for imported energy resources, as energy represent third largest cost in Wintertime forest in Gorenjska region any product or service. As a member of EU, Slovenia also has to follow new goals agreed within Climate-energy pact of EU for promoting REs. Goal of Slovene in this aspect is to reach 25% share of RE by 2020. Large and only partly exploited potential of wooden biomass energy has been so far mostly limited to the hilly areas of the region. Explotation of wooden biomass in low-lands is, beside by problems with

fragmentation of forest estates, minimized by well developed natural gas network. Only 1 million m3 out of 2 million m3 less quality wood is curently used for energy production, while waste wood from wood processing is much better used in wood processing plants. Out of energy of wooden biomass effectively produced, around 95 % is currently used for heating, but current technology is largely obsolete with low level of efficency. As prices of extra light heating oil has been increased in last decade, number of individual wooden biomass installations have been steadily growing. Ownership structure of forest marked by property fragmentation, lack of ambitious and systematic policy which would support and promote use of wooden ‘’waste’’ from forests, closing down of big wood processing plants as a source for energy waste for energy purposes and current dominance of heating by fossily energy, couse big potentials of wooden biomass to be unexploited. One of reasons for low number of systems of remote heating is also undeveloped biomass logistic. Therefore it is no surprise that economic efficency of wooden biomass has been, according to the study carried on in 2008, relatively low due to

complicated logistic coused by forest property fragmentation and partly inadequate infrastructure for forest works (forest roads, forest cableway). Positive perspectives for wooden biomass energy are driven by growing prices of fossile fuels, which has grown for some 40% since the study was done. Ministry for Environment and Space prepared already in 2002 a Program for energy use of wooden biomass for 2002-2004. Program was aimed to build in next 10 years 50 municipality remote control systems for biomass heating, 100 industrial heating systems and 5000 small individual private heating installations. Total subventions to support these investments ware estimated to 53 millions EUR. In order to eliminate legislation, institutional and procedural obstacles for wider use of wooden biomass, Slovene public agency for eﬀective energy use prepared and implemented in 2002-2005 a comprehensive project “Eliminating obstacles for increased use of wooden biomass as energy resource”. Slovenia set up by the Resolution on National energy program (2004) a range of goals aimed to increase share of renewable energies (RE) in energy consumption. In year 2007, an Operative program for use of wooden biomass as energy resource (2007 – 2013) was adopted to increase use of biomass for heat and electricity production, focusing especially on the use of wooden waste. This was a 1st special program for one of the renewable source, underlined unexploited potential of energy from wood from forest management works, wood processing and worn out wooden products. To fully implement program, 201 millions EUR would be needed, out of which 67 millions should be non-reimbursable

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funds (grants). As a continuation and upgrading of all these documents Action plan for Renewable energies in Slovenia 2010-2020 has a very important part of content dedicated to wooden biomass. One of main ﬁnancial supporting instrument listed actions has been Slovene Environmental Public Fund which provides public ﬁnancial support for public/private investments in renewables. Fund has 2 of its measures targeted on installing municipal and individual private heating system (trough favourable credits or non-refundable money).

Slovene Rural development program 2007provides too 2013 non-refundable subventions both for use of wooden biomass on farms for own consumption, as well to produce heath as a proﬁtable commercial activity on farms to support sustainable n local woode by ed at development of rural areas. village he hool of Lom omass Primary sc bi Share of non-refundable funds is up to 70% of investment. But probably the most important instrument supporting production of renewable energy (RE) is a System of assured purchasing prices for all such energy produced. Producers have therefor assured that all of their eneryg will be purchaed for much higher price as market one, if only they get

a status of qualified RE seller. Development documents at the regional level partly followed national directions. Regional development plan for Gorenjska 2007-2013 has underlined measures and actions for energy efficiency in the section INFRASTRUCTURE, ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION IN SPACE SETTLEMENT. On the production side, section AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT plans within the submeasure ‘’Forest – Source of income and energy’’ a better use of forests and wood, respectively, as one of rare regional natural resources. Rural development Program within the Regional development program for Gorenjska (20072013), underlines importance of forests and wooden biomass for economy of rural, especially hilly areas, by listing 4 regional measures. They aim to directs all available support to the support of plants/boilers, remote control system and logistics for use of wood and other biomass for energy purposes. Program also plans projects for renewable energy use and energy efficiency with anticipated construction of some bigger and numerous smaller private and public systems for

biomass heating. And ﬁnally, Local Energy Agency for Gorenjska was established in 2009 to support energy sustainability in Gorenjska region. Is only at the start of work, but could represent very valuable coordination body for such goals.

. Local Energy Concept (LEC) is in the communities which have already adopted such document only strategic document addressing energy efficiency and use of renewables. For above mentioned reasons remote control systems for biomass heating has not been fully used and recognized as important energy solution, while exisiting systems use only limited quantaties of energy wood. Very big obstacles for faster introduction of remote control systems for biomass heating has been, according to the draft of Program for sustainable development of wood added value chain (prepared by Government Office for Climate Changes) complicated business and administrative procedures, lack of investors and capital, and uncertanty about biomass supply (both quality and quantity). It was suggested in the same document that solutions could be enabling of those providers, which are strong in terms of capital and professional competencess, for implementation of remote control systems of biomass heating and energy wood supply. State and public institutions could support development of such providers by recognizing remote control systems using wooden biomass for heating as priority in legislation and policies, adopting legislation to foster investments in this sector (public-private partnerships, …), and actively cooperating with communities by offering them guidance, training and expert assi-

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1.2.3 The Gorenjska region

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stance. Whole region has so far only two bigger remote control systems for biomass heating, DOLB Predvor and DOLB Železniki. Some other, as those presented in Best practice section, are much smaller in size, but very interesting to be a guiding example from the aspect of business model and contribution to the local economy. C. Local wood as construction material positive both for a CO2 decrease and regional development Construction sector, based on energy wasteful materials (steel, concrete, brick, plastic, aluminium) is one of the largest consumer of energy and therefore also contributes large share of greenhouse gas emissions. Solution is a wider use of wooden products which, troughout it’s life-cycle, store around 2 tonnes of CO2 per m3. Wood is of all materials also the least energy consumptive and it is renewable. Wooden house, together with all interior equipment, captures during its life-cycle around 60 tones CO2. It has been estimated that if potential of wooden constructions would be better used, Slovenia could even sell CO2 coupons. Slovene and Gorenjska wood-processing industry, respectively, has been, in spite of rich wood resources, long tradition of both production and use of wooden products, and a high number of skilled people in all processing phases, facing huge problems and decline after 1991. Majority of previosuly succesfull wood-processing companies in Slovenia and Gorenjska went bankrup. Most severe problems which this wood-processing sector has been facing, are divided, fragmented and insufficently connected production chain, low market reputation (image), insuficent sources of sawed wood, problems with skilled staff and relations between institutions of knowledge and companies, partly poor technological equipment and unsuitable positioning of sector withing state policies in the past. Increased production and use of local wood would, however, bring numerous benefits for Gorenjska region sustai-

nable economy: a) Renewable, natural and domestic material would be used instead of unsustainable ones, b.) Wood processing industry is a labour intensive and brings therefor number of new jobs, c.) Production of products based on domestic wood can contribute to the self-sufﬁciency of Gorenjska region and Slovenia on these products, d.) Increased demand for wood would consequently contribute to more intensive forest management (in private forests), and e.) Increased quantaties of wood waste as a side product would be available at better price for energy purposes. To promote development of wooden constructing Slovene forestwood technological platform was created and assambled 15 concrete tasks to fully use potentials of forests

and wood. Central point was to set up interconnected process-chain of processing with central location for primary processing with capacity of around 500.000 m3 and regional centres for secundary processing. Other parts of such chain would be appropriate education systems to ensure skilled staff, expert service in rural areas, and centres for creative industries. Furthermore establishment systematic certification of products and services according to their impact on green-house gas emissions and environment in general in their entire life-cycle. As one of first measures aimed at fostering development of wood-processing industry, a Decree on green public procurements was adopted by Slovene Government in December 2011. Estimated value of public procurements has been around 13% (in 2007). Decree followed EU Commission suggestion in it’s reports that after 2010 in average 50% of all public procurements in member states should be ‘’green’’. Slovene decree on green public procurements requires that projecting public buildings should include at least 30% of volume share of wood and wooden substances. Slovene target is to Study visit in a biomass producer company near Kranj, reach (by 2012) in construction sector and Slovenia building a 30 % share of all green procurements, while for electricity and furniture shares should be 100% and 50%, respectively. Slovenia adopted an Action plan for green procurements whos declared principle aim is, by fostering implementation of green public procurement. Among important principles which shouldbe taken into account during implementation of green public procurement is a principle of cost estimation of entire life-cyxle of a product/service (Life Cycle Costing - LCC).

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MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVES TO ADDRESS CARBON STOCK CHANGES IN THE AGRICULTURAL AND FORESTRY SECTOR

1. How to measure the environmental impacts in agriculture

Agriculture is expected to be competitive, to produce high quality food in sufficient quantities and to be environmentally harmless (20). To evaluate the sustainability of agricultural production systems, it is necessary to have appropriate indicator in place. The environmental impacts of N-use in agriculture have been analyzed in numerous investigations. Frequently, these focus only on individual effects such nitrate leaching, or ammonia volatilization, or carbon footprint However, agricultural production systems contribute to a wide range of environmental impacts. Even though some impact categories account for more relevant effects on agriculture than others, the analysis of individual issue does not permit an overall conclusion from and environmental point of view on the overall preference for one or another production strategy. In the recent years different environmental management tools or specific labels have been developed (es. EMAS or EPD), to investigate the overall environmental performance of farms, in order to compare or monitor the environmental impact of the products and the overall production systems, and to detect options for improvements. Moreover, the increasing environmental public awareness in a great number of countries all over the world requires a more deep knowledge concerning the impacts of the usual agricultural activities. Life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, acknowledged to “represent the most rigorous attempt to account for all the environmental impacts” (21) is a core topic in the field of environmental management. Initially applied to industrial pro-

2.1 Environmental impacts of agricultural productions using life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology: the case study of Ferrara province Elena Tamburini

Sandro Bolognesi

ductions, it has subsequently extended to other sectors, among which, within the last 15 years, agriculture. LCA applied to agricultural production is the most recent area and still not well established, because it has several remarkable peculiarities which make the methodology not easily standardized. For instance, essential influence have variables as the land use, or the soil quality changes, which can alter ecosystems and affect biodiversity, and are usually ignored for industrial systems. In ISO 14010 series (22, 23) LCA is defined as the “compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and potential environmental impacts of product system throughout its life cycle”. Thus LCA is a tool for the analysis of the environmental burden of products connected to their entire production systems (the well-known from cradle to grave approach), tracing it back to primary resources. For crop production not only on-

field activities but also all impacts related to the production of all the farm inputs. Electricity is generated from primary fuels like coal, oil and uranium. Fertilizers that are based on ammonium use methane as a feedstock and source of energy. Other fertilizers, such as phosphate and potassium, also require energy for extraction from the ground, processing, packing and delivery. Machinery, including tractors and processing equipment, require steel, plastic, and other materials for their manufacture. This involves energy costs in addition to the direct diesel use. For a detailed description of LCA methodology see Annex 1. The majority of the most prominent LCA literature, especially with regard to agricultural production systems, is of European origin (24). They can generally be classified as having system boundaries defined as cradle-to-farmgate type or comparative LCA, where they compare agricultural systems (25, 26). Agriculture does not consume resources in a linear sense, as for example many industrial processes and is not therefore a pure “cradle-to-grave” process. Many central agricultural production resources, such as soil, fertility, seeds, cattle and manure take place

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2.1 How to measure the environmental impacts in agriculture

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within a farm and based on renewable resources using, enhancing and ensuring nature's processes. As previously discussed, agriculture has several other differences (complexities) from LCA of industrial processes. The principal feature is that agriculture utilizes land and soil. The balances of soil nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K), through fertilizer application and plant uptake, need careful consideration. Estimating long term balances requires the use of simulation modeling, which must be adapted to the local context, to take into account variations in soil texture, rainfall and altitude. Many agricultural systems are interlinked and therefore changes to one system, for example arable crops used for animal feed, will have knock-on effects to other systems, i.e. the animal systems. In addition, geographically diverse areas determine different pedoclimatic conditions, which strongly affect the quantity and the type of agricultural practices (27, 28). The agricultural inputs and outputs could be subdivided into economic flows and environmental flows. The economic inputs are organized in classes of principal production factors, namely: energy, machinery, buildings, seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, and complementary materials. This relationship is made up for establishing correspondences with inputs and environmental emissions associated to their production and use. The economic outputs are the marketable farm products and by-products. As to the environmental flows, the outputs are characterized in a series of emissions (in the atmosphere, in the water, in the soil), caused by the economic inputs (29).

2. The case study of agriculture productions in the province of Ferrara

The typical Pianura Padana area agricultural production system is characterized by intensive farming, supported by largest quantities of fertilizers, which facilitate a large increase in the production of feed and food per unit of cultivated land, but it also

contributed to enrichment of surface and groundwater with various forms of nitrogen and phosphorus. To successfully achieve environmental protection as well as high crop yields, relevant evaluations must be formulated to encourage farmers to improve the cultivation practices management. Moreover, the use of renewable energy (biogas, PV) only in recent years has been introducing diffusely, thanks to public incentives. Organic farming is very diffusely practiced for several productions, especially for fruit and vegetables. The extreme complexity of agriculture and the great number of variable involved, need to a 360-degree feedback, that includes all the inputs and outputs used to obtain the final product. Only in this way the actual environmental impact can be properly monitored and the effects of global warming adequately considered. In an agricultural system, more than in other sectors, the CO2 emissions cannot be isolated from the other sources of impact due to water consumption or fertilizers and pesticides utilization, even though they do not directly contribute to GWP. For these reasons a quantitative LCA approach was considered to investigate environmental impacts of some agricultural cultivations in Italy.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, local agricultural production is principally concentrated on cereals, orchard and vegetables. In particular, as a case study, five crops cultivated in the Province of Ferrara have been selected: tomato, pear, apple, wheat and radicchio (Italian chicory). Tomato alone represents 42% of horticulture and Italian chicory 15%. Pear and apple stand for respectively 67% and 14% of orchards and wheat 30% of the total amount of cereals. The 5 farms, identified as key partners (KP) of the project, are distributed throughout the province territory. Moreover, for tomato and apple crops the impact of transformation phase up to final product was also investigated and comparison between agricultural and industrial phase was carried out (Figure 1). The two transformation mill (6. And 7. in Figure below) assured a very short supply chain from production to final products.

Location of the 5 farms involved in the project.

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Farms were selected on the basis of several criteria. Besides the territorial location, also farm size, hectares assigned to the selected crop, and method of cultivation, were considered as relevant variables as summarized in Table 1. Table 1

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On the basis of the standardized LCA procedure, goal and scope were firstly defined. The purpose of this study were to evaluate the carbon footprint, together with the other principal impact categories, of the life cycle of five typical crops cultivated in the province of Ferrara (Figures below and on the right) following a standardized and acknowledged methodology and identify the most critical hotspots and to investigate the specific impacts of the agricultural phase.

Cultivation of tom ato and harvesting

Apple orchard (cult. Dallago) and harvesting

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Wheat cultivation and harvesting

Radicchio cultivation and harvesting

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In two case, tomato and apple, a comparison between agricultural and industrial hase was also carried out in order to better understand the environmental issue of the entire local supply chain (Figures below). The functional unit (FU) used here was 1 kg of product, harvested or processed. In case of particular discussion, sometimes, 1 hectare of soil will be conveniently used, but, in the case, proper specification is done. The time coverage is the year 2011, considering all the year for perennial crops (apple and pear) and the effective period from sowing to harvesting for annual crops (tomato, wheat and radicchio). For crops production, the system boundaries were set from planting to the delivery to the subsequent transformation phase or agricultural consortium, including fertilizers and pesticides life cycles, resource (energy/fuel/water) consumptions and waste/packaging management (Figure on the right (top). For transformation phase of tomato and apple, the system boundaries were defined from the entrance to the exit gate of processing mill, considering all the resource consumptions, without considering the final transportation of products to customers (Figure below).

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System boundaries for agricultural phase

System boundaries for industrial phase

2.1 How to measure the environmental impacts in agriculture

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One of the key point is the quantity of resource used. In agriculture this point is particularly difficult to standardized because of the variability of pedoclimatic conditions and rainfall from year to year. Naturally a statistically based investigation have to be carried out over a time period of at least five or ten years. For a matter of time and project resources, during this preliminary study only one year has been considered. To better understand and interpreting the final results of impact categories, trends of temperature and rainfall for 2011 were reported (data from Environmental Service of Emilia Romagna Region – ARPA, 2011) (Figure below).

Average monthly temperature, year 2007-2001

Cumulated monthly rainfall, year 2008-2011

As it can be seen from the graphs, in 2011 while temperature trend was on average with previous years, it was particularly dry, with a scarce total amount of rain (353 mm/year) in comparison with 30-years averaged value of 650 mm/year. This may have inﬂuenced the need to irrigate more, increasing water, fuel and energy consumption, and consequently, related impacts.

LCA calculations have been carried out using SimaPro® v.7.3.3 and the database was Ecoinvent® v.2.2, in collaboration with LCAlab of ENEA Research Center, and the certifying company CCPB Srl (Bologna, Italy). The impact categories, the measurement unit and the reference method for calculation of characterization factors are reported in Table 2. The most eﬀort-consuming step of the LCA studies implementation is the collection of data

Table 2

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in order to build the life cycle inventory. Furthermore, data for agricultural processes are limited in literature and in LCA database, compared to industrial processes. Questionnaires were elaborated for this specific data collection and were fulfilled by personal interviews with farmers and operators during 2012. Questionnaire was specifically studied to take into account all the possible source of impact during the agricultural phase for the 5 crops and the processing phase for apple and tomato. Thus, the data collection can be considered to be of very high quality, according to the criteria of reliability and completeness (see Annex). For each unit process within the system boundaries, qualitative (types of agricultural practices) and quantitative data inputs (energy, fuel, water and materials) and outputs (wastes, emissions) were collected. For fertilizers and pesticides detailed compositions the product description were considered.

2.1 How to measure the environmental impacts in agriculture

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Direct emissions of nitrogen fertilizers were calculated on the basis of the Italian inventory for Emissions in Agriculture (ISPRA, 2011); direct emissions of pesticides Mackayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s model for single substance was used (http://www.apat.gov.it). Ecoinvent database contains secondary data on machinery productions, fuel consumption and emissions from fuel. Because of the most part of the territory is below the sea level, also the energy consumption of public pumping system was included. To describe the agricultural production of the ďŹ ve selected crops, 8 main process units were considered (Table 3). Table 3

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When referring to the total amount consumed in the entire farm, energy, fuel and water consumption were allocated to the selected crops, on the basis of the relative weight of the crop hectares on the overall farm surface. Results of LCA calculations for each crop are listed below. Since in these crop production systems there are very few emissions which contribute to chlorofluorocarbons and to the formation of tropospheric photo-oxidants, this impact categories (ODP and POF) has been neglected in the final report. In every case considered, they have always assumed not significant values (< 10-9).

2 3. LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of TOMATO

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The land use was calculated taking into account the time coverage of the crop per year. In the case of tomato, it corresponds to 2.917 ha (7/12 of the total arable surface dedicated to tomato cultivation, 5 ha

Field operations is the most impacting process unit. As already mentioned, this unit include the use of machineries, fuel consumptions, emissions from fuel combustion. An obvious correlation exists between kg CO2 eq. emitted and quantity of fuel used. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worthwhile noting that harvesting is the most impacting operation on carbon footprint, followed by operations connected to application of pesticides. In fact, tomato harvesting is usually carried out with heavy tractors, that go very slowly (about 1 day/ha) (Figure on Example of harvesting machine the left). Ploughing is very energy-eater operation, as well.

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2.3 LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of TOMATO

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During 2011 tomato cultivation needed of 50 irrigation interventions with a consumption of 300 liters of fuel. The observed low fuel consumption is due to the fact that for irrigation a drip system was used (Figures below), which in itself provides a low fuel consumption. Moreover, the drip irrigation system is connected also to an electric pump powered by PV, which does not contribute to GWP100.

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Drip irrigation system for tomato

As expected, the principal eďŹ&#x20AC;ect on eutrophication is imputable to nitrate and phosphate emissions in water from fertilizers. Fertilizers contribution to GWP100 is mainly due to nitrous oxide and ammonia in air. According to organic method of cultivation, wood ash based

and compost were used as fertilizers, packaged in plastic bags or tanks, while copper based compound and pyrethrum were used as pesticides, packaged in paper bags and plastic bottles respectively. The latters have effects principally on toxicity indicators, as expected, even though with low overall values (in comparison with conventional method of cultivation). The effect on toxicity caused by field operations derives from the large quantities of particles and harmful substances emitted to the atmosphere during fuel combustion, which could have potential toxic effects on humans and marine species. Transportation phase has a little impacts on environment because all the distance involved are very short (<50 km). For the production of 1 kg of organic tomato, 176.4 litres of water and 0.859 MJ (corresponding to 0.239 kWh) are necessary, while emitting 0.062 kg CO2 eq.. To the low impact in terms of CO2 eq. emitted could have been contributed the presence within the farm of a photovoltaic system, which produces 45% of the total electric energy for internal uses. It’s worthwhile pointing out that water consumption (WC) means the water consumption of the entire life cycle, at this level of detail including water consumption both direct, namely for irrigation, and indirect, for example the water necessary for the production of diesel fuel, electricity and various materials necessary for cultivation. The very interesting aspect is that, of 176,4 liters of water that burdens on the production of 1 kg of tomato, only 30.0 liters are allocated on irrigation step. The remaining 146.4 liters are water consumed in indirect operations connected with the production of inputs.

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2 4. LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of APPLE

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In the calculations, materials, energy and water used for orchard planting have been considered under the heading ďŹ eld operations. Separately, planting accounts for about 4% of the overall contribution of ďŹ eld operations on GWP100. Orchard planting unit included manufacturing, transport and planting of the 130 concrete blocks, 56 reinforcing steel bars and

wires used, and field harrowing and grooving. Because of the orchard life was 20 years, the impact allocated to the reference year (2011) was 1/20 of the overall impact. Recycling as aggregates as possible end life scenario of blocks has been taking into account in the calculation, while wires have been considered as inert material for landfill. Ammonium nitrate, triple superphosphate, potassium chloride and ammonium sulfate packaged in plastic bags were used as fertilizers. They contribute to eutrophication and acidification potential principally as nitrate emissions in water and SO2 in air. Contribution of fertilizers to GWP100 is due both to emissions related to their manufacturing (production and packaging) and N2O emissions in air after soil fertilizations. In this case, the relative weight of these two contribu“Dallago” apple orchard tions was 24% and 76% respectively. Several fungicides, insecticides and herbicides were used as chemical protection agents. Their relevant impact can be seen at the level of toxicity, human and eco, on both freshwater and marine water. Fertilizers usually contain heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb ,Zn, Cr) in traces. Their leakage on soil have been neglected in annual crops, but considered in case of orchards, because of its long time coverage of soil. The land use corresponds to the entire 1,1 hectare, because one year is considered as time coverage period. Field operations contribute for more than 55% of total GWP100. Separating contributions of single field operations, it’s worthwhile noting that the application of pesticides gives the highest contribution to carbon footprint. In 2011, 27 treatments of pesticides have been carried out, with a total fuel consumption (diesel oil) of about 250 liters.

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2.4 LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of APPLE

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Cannonbolt irrigation system was used, connected to a tractor. This system is typically considered as high fuel consumer because of the high power necessary to the pressure pump. In conclusion, for the production of 1 kg of apples, 256.0 liters of water and 1.995 MJ (corresponding to 0.554 kWh) are necessary, emitting 0.097 kg CO2 eq.. Direct water consumption for irrigation corresponds to 6.7 liters/kg. The ABD contribution derives from ďŹ eld operations, because of the not-renewable resource consumption caused by fuel production.

Cannonbolt irrigation system

5. LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of PEAR

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2.5 LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of PEAR

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As in the case of apple orchard, planting operations for pear orchard have been included in the ďŹ eld operations process unit, dividing in 1/20 and allocating for 2011 the portion of the overall impact. The average life time for pear orchard could be considered 20 years. 18 concrete blocks, reinforcing steel bars and wires manufacturing, transport and planting have been considered, as well as their end life scenario. The land use corresponds to the entire 0.2 hectare, because one year is considered as time coverage period. Organic treatments with compost and vinasses packaged in plastic bags have been carried out during 2011. As in the previous case, fertilizers impact principally on eutrophication, due to nitrate and phosphate leakage in water. Heavy metals emissions on soil have been considered. Applications of pesticides included Bordeaux mixture, rameic sulphate-based packaged in paper bags, which has a relevant impact on acidiďŹ cation due to SO2 emissions in air, pyretroid compounds, mineral oil and Rotenone in plastic bottles. Leakage of mineral oil gives relevant impact in terms of toxicity on terrestrial and marine environment. CO2 eq. emissions which contribute to GWP100 is due almost exclusively to ďŹ eld operations. The separate contributions of single processes is reported below:

Pear harvesting has the highest impact on GWP100, due to the highest gasoline consumption. Gasoline has almost the same calorific power and emissions as diesel oil, the reasons for this high consumption must be sought in other factors, as the slowness of the harvesting phase, carried out with few people (120 hours/ha for pears in comparison with 65,5 hours/ha for apples). Irrigation phase does not have any impact on fuel consumption and GWP100, because an electric pump was used. Evidently, on pear production burdens higher consumptions of electric energy. The use of electric pump has indirect effects on GWP100 value, due to emissions related to electric energy production and on energy consumption (EC) for field operations. In fact, to produce 1 kg of pear, 6.071 MJ, corresponding to 1,68 kwh are necessary and more than 90% is allocated to field operations for irrigation requirements.

Glancing at the overall results for pear production, one can note the general higher values than those obtained, for example, in the case of apple production. Nevertheless, the use of biocompatible pesticides has an evident positive effect on toxicity, both human and eco. In fact, the principal contribution on toxicity derives from field operations, contrary to what is observed, for example, in conventional cultivation methods, where the effects of chemical agents is particularly relevant on human and eco-toxicity. To produce 1 kg of organic pear, 464 liters of water and 1,68 kwh has been used, emitting 0,376 kg of CO2 eq.. Direct water consumption for irrigation corresponds to 7.6 liters/kg.

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2 6. LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of WHEAT

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Glancing at the graph, it’s evident that the most impacting process unit is related to fertilizers. In particular grater values are for their production and packaging, as shown below:

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Except for GWP100, EU and AD, where emissions caused by fertilizers have relevant effects, 100% of the other impact values are exclusively due to the contribution of production and packaging of fertilizers. Emissions on GWP100 derives from N2O in air caused by urea/ammonium nitrification in soil. Production and packaging phase contribute to GWP100 because they are particularly energy eater. During wheat cultivation the amount of ammonium nitrate and urea used are very high resulting in a relevant contribution to the impact indicators. Moreover, the effects are amplified by the lower yield/ha. Seeds production and sowing are included within field operations, contributing to GWP100 for about 35% of the overall GWP100 for field operations. The land use for wheat is 18,6 ha, corresponding to 8/12 of the total arable surface dedicated to wheat cultivation, 31,27 ha.

2.6 LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of WHEAT

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To produce 1 kg of wheat, cultivated with conventional method, 350 liters of water and 0.859 kwh has been used, emitting 0,509 kg of CO2 eq.. In this case direct water consumption for irrigation is not present.

7. LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of RADICCHIO

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2.7 LCA for agricultural production of 1kg of RADICCHIO

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Many of the considerations that have already been made above can be also apply in this case. Field operations is the most impactant unit, for all categories of impact, except for fertilizers production and emissions, which has eďŹ&#x20AC;ects on eutrophication, due to nitrate and phosphate emissions in water. The land use is 6,67 ha, corresponding to 5/12 of the total arable surface dedicated to cultivation of radicchio, 16 ha.

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Harvesting was carried out manually. Fuel consumption is related to tractor and trailer transport. Fungicides, insecticides and herbicides Little plants of radicchio before planting were used, but they have a relatively low eďŹ&#x20AC;ect on toxicity, lower than the effect of substances emitted during fuel combustion. To produce 1 kg of radicchio, 1109 liters of water and 1,14 kwh has been used, emitting 0,376 kg of CO2 eq.. Direct water consumption for irrigation corresponds to 80.0 liters/kg.

8. Overall discussion on toxicity indicators

This impact category includes all direct toxic effects of emissions on humans (human toxicity) and ecosystems (eco-toxicity). Emissions, which may be potentially toxic and are released by arable farming systems, are (1) inorganic air pollutants like NH3, SO2 and NOx, (2) plant protection substances, and (3) heavy metals. Inorganic air emissions (e.g. SO2, NOx, CO, NH3, particles) are potentially toxic to humans due to their contribution to smog episodes with high concentrations of air pollutants in urban areas. The contribution of these emissions to other environmental problems like acidification or eutrophication is accounted for in the respective impact categories. As it is well known, smog is associated with specific weather conditions together with high emission rates particularly of SO2 and suspended particles, leading to respiratory problems. Literature (10) has shown that in arable farming systems at least 70% of the SO2, NOx, NH3, CO and particle emissions are released during onfield activities (e.g. tractor use, fertilizer application) in spring and summer. Our case confirm this as-

sumption, because the principal effect on toxicity is hardly ever due to field operations. Plant protection substances are applied in order to control certain organisms (e.g. weeds, fungi, and insects) in order to improve the productivity of arable farming. However, via wind drift, evaporation, leaching, and surface run-off, a part of the applied agrochemicals may impact upon terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems or even humans. In cultivation systems as apple orchard, where the use of pesticides was relevant, impacts on toxicity appears straightforward. Other ‘non-toxic’ environmental impacts, which are due to the production, packaging, transport and application of plant protection agents (e.g. consumption of fossil fuels, emissions related to energy use), are included in the relevant impact categories. The agricultural use of mineral phosphate fertilizers and organic materials like vinasses or compost may lead to emissions of heavy metals to soils. In the case of long-standing cropping systems, as orchard conditions, potential toxic effects of heavy metals (Cd, Cu, Ni, Cr, Pb, Zn) released for soil erosion have accounted in the calculation. In the calculations, their potential contribution were allocated within the emissions of fertilizers, because they are usually present in the chemical fertilizers as well. Human and eco-toxicity are expressed relative to a reference substance, which is 1,4-dichlorobenzene (1,4DCB) and are therefore called 1,4DCB-equivalents. A toxicological effect is in general an adverse change in the structure, or function, of a species as a result of exposure to a chemical. Depending on the great diversity of the characteristics (species and functions) of the considered environments, impact on

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2 humans, and flora/fauna of freshwater, marine water and terrestrial environment could have very different effects.

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9. Focus on GWP100 and carbon dioxide emissions

In LCA calculations, 1 kg of product is usually used to compare diﬀerent agricultural systems, namely conventional and organic, or intensive and extensive, while 1 ha is more useful in the case of comparison between diﬀerent land use. Even though the purpose of this study is not the comparison among land use, it’s worthwhile showing data of GWP100 also in terms of 1 ha as functional unit.

Because of the diﬀerent productivity of crops, the results expressed in the 2 functional units can be quite diﬀerent. In fact, for example 1 kg of tomato give a lower contributions to CO2

emissions than 1 kg of wheat, but cultivating 1 ha of tomato burdens on CO2 emissions more than 1 ha of wheat. This could be due to the fact that on 1 ha of tomato field operations as irrigation or application of pesticides have to be carried out frequently (especially in the case of organic cultivation, where admitted products are generally less persistent on soil), with a great impact on GWP100. Otherwise, the higher yield per hectare of tomato “spreads the effect” on a very high quantity of products, unlike to what happens in the case of wheat, which has an average yield per hectare 10-15 fold less than tomato. Although very impacting in other categories, the use of pesticides do not burden heavily on GWP100. The very short supply chain determines the very low impacts of transportation phase. Summing up, for the five crops selected the

most impacting process units on GWP100 indicator are field operations and fertilizers production, packaging and emissions. As already pointed out, for field operations emissions in air are related to fuel combustion and gases production, whereas emissions of fertilizers in air derive from N2O/NOx and NH3. The following graph shows a comparison among fuel consumption/ha and fuel consumption/kg for four field operations:

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2 10. LCA calculation for TOMATO supply chain

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After harvesting, tomato were transported to the processing mill by trucks for a distance of 24 km Figure 21 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Trucks of tomatoes

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Tomatoes were processed to obtain concentrate in two diďŹ&#x20AC;erent packaging size: - stainless steel drums (210kg), for European market (60% of production) - glass bottles (700 g), for Italian market (40% of production)

In 2011, 63.583,004 tonnes of apples were processed. On average, 6 kg of tomatoes are necessary to obtain 1 kg of concentrate

2 2.10 LCA calculation for TOMATO supply chain

Detailed ďŹ&#x201A;ow diagram of the processing phases is depicted below:

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For the calculation the process units were grouped in 3 macrophases, namely processing, packaging and logistics. Taking into account that usually tomato pomace (seeds and skins) accounts only for 3-4% of total amount of processed tomato, all impacts were allocated to the production of concentrate. Processing phase calculations were carried out separately from the agricultural phase, but data reported are weighted on the entire supply chain. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s worthwhile noting that the overall industrial phase has higher impacts than cultivation, except for the relevant contribution of agricultural operations on toxicity. Agricultural production accounts for about 10% of the overall GWP100 value, the remaining part being due to processing phases. Within the processing phase only, packaging is the most impacting on GWP100:

In particular, on packaging phase, production and transportation of glass bottles weighted for 55%. Within packaging phase, manufacturing and transportation of glass bottles and stainless steel drums, as well as of wood pallets and plastic coverage were included. In particular, glass bottles weighted for 55% of the entire packaging phase GWP100. This relevant impact of packaging phase is principally due to glass bottle production and transportation. In fact, upon the glass manufacture process, air-polluting compounds like nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulates are released, whose eﬀects appear on GWP100, AC, EC and toxicity. Glass is also made from non-renewable resources – sand, silica and limestone, as it can be seen on ABD impact category. Although these are more plentiful and less environmen-

tally damaging to extract than petroleum, glass bottles still swing the impacts to high during manufacture because the elements require energy to heat them to 1200°C in a furnace. After manufacturing, the greatest environmental eﬀect comes from transportation, due to the heavy weight of glass bottles, impacting on truckload size and thus fuel use. However, the great advantage of using glass as packaging materials derives from being forever recyclable back into new bottles. As end life scenario incineration for plastics and paper materials. Eﬀects on environment due to recovery of stainless steel drums and glass bottles were excluded from calculations. Within transformation steps (washing, selection, separation, concentration and sterilization), tap water and well water, electric and thermal energy, fuel (diesel oil, methane for boilers) and additives materials (lubricant oil and chemicals as sulphuric acid, sodium hypochlorite and chloride) were included. The GWP100 impact of transformation is distributed more between the thermal energy produced from natural gas (75%) and the electric energy (25%). While thermal energy is principally used for concentration, electric energy is distributed in % among the

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2.10 LCA calculation for TOMATO supply chain

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steps, where the greatest impact is loaded on tomatoes shower washing and separation of skins and seeds. This is not due to kWh unit consumed, since in that case the phase would be more expensive the concentration, but to the functional unit considered. In these two phases the allocation takes place for 6kg of tomatoes and not for 1kg of processed product. In fact, for all the stages preceding the concentration, allocation is carried out according to the fact that to obtain 1 kg of concentrate, 6 kg of fresh tomatoes are necessary.

Two different scenario for logistics were imagined, depending on reference markets. A mean distance of 500km for Italian distribution and of 1000 km for European exports were supposed, covered with a large trucks fleet (25 ton). Trucks were saturated with 108 drums or 29520 bottles. In the distribution phase the effect in GWP100 is distributed for 67% of the European scenario (1000km in stainless steel drums) and 33% scenario Italian (500km in glass bottles).

11. LCA calculation for APPLE supply chain

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2.11 LCA calculation for APPLE supply chain

After harvesting, apples were transported in plastic bins (Figure 22 below) by trucks (8 ton) to the processing mill, at a distance of 15 km from farm.

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Plastic bins

The ﬁnal product, in this case, is dried apple cubes (Figure below), packed in plastic bag and recycled cardboard boxes of 21 kg :

Dried apple cubes

In 2011, 680 tonnes of apples were processed. On average, 2 kg of apples are necessary to obtain 1 kg of ﬁnal product.

Dried apple cubes is considered a semiﬁnished product, and it is sold to food industry as raw materials. The average distance to the customers is 300 km.

Detailed ﬂow diagram of the processing phases is depicted below:

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As in the case of tomato processing, for the calculation 3 macrophases were considered, namely processing, packaging and logistics. Fruits waste (only cores, because peels are liquefied with soda) feeds a biogas plant, which produces electric and thermal energy for internal use. The industrial portion of supply chain is overall more impacting than agricultural phase, as in the case of tomato, but here the greatest impacts burden on processing steps (calibration, peeling and cubing), rather than on packaging. Cultivation maintain relevant effects on toxicity, also including the industrial phase in the calculation. On GWP100 the different phases burden as follows:

2.11 LCA calculation for APPLE supply chain

2 In particular, the 2 principal contributions to the so high impact of transformation phase on GWP100 derives from additives and energy consumptions.

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Additives as sugar beet (213 g/kg), packed in paper bags, marine salt (10 g/kg), citric acid (0,3 g/kg) and sodium metabisulphite (0.6 g/kg) paked in plastic bags, were added during the process. Transportation to the firm and packaging of additives were considered. Energy consumption is very high, both in terms of thermal energy produced by a boiler feed with natural gas and electric energy for calibration and peeling machines, and drying tunnel, as well as for elevator carriages, which are all very energy-eaters. Packaging phase includes production and transportation by trucks from the suppliers of plastic bags and cardboard boxes. Suppliers are located as a maximum distance of 260 km from the firm. Distribution and logistics provide a scenario of a customer located at 300 km from the firm, reached by truck (9 tonnes of charge capacity). Packages of 21 kg of product are packed with plastic bags and cardboard boxes, charged on wood pallets.

2.2 Forest management in chestnut coppice and its role in carbon sequestration in wood products: the case study in Asturias Celia MartĂnez-Alonso Lorena Berdasco

1. Introduction Climate change has become one of the major environmental problems of the planet. It is a complex problem, caused by the increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere, particularly CO2.The increase in the use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution seems to be one of the main causes of this increase in emissions, although we must also consider other causes such as tropical deforestation (IPCC, 2000). At least 60% of climate change can be attributed to CO2 emissions caused by human activities, meaning about 6 billion tonnes of carbon emissions annually (30). The direct consequence of increasing GHG emissions is the widespread rise in temperature of both the air and the ocean. Evidence is growing that some weather events, such as heat-weaves, cold snaps, ďŹ&#x201A;oods and windstorms, are likely to be-

come more frequent, more widespread and/or more intense during the 21st century (31). Forestland in Asturias.

In 2005 the Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted at the third session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in Kyoto, and came into force on 16 February 2005. The Kyoto Protocol sets binding obligations on industrialized countries and Annex I countries to reduce emissions of GHG by 5.2% on average for the period 2008-2012, relative to 1990. In order to achieve these commitments, countries must reduce their emissions and increase their removals, submitting an annual report with invento-

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ries of all anthropogenic GHG emissions from sources and removals by sinks. The Protocol allows for several "flexible mechanisms", such as emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation to allow Annex I countries to meet their GHG emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reduction credits from elsewhere, through financial exchanges, projects that reduce emissions in non-Annex I countries, from other Annex I countries, or from Annex I countries with excess allowances. Although the first Kyoto compliance period is over, and at the 2012 Doha COP, 17 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed to a second commitment period of emissions reductions from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2017 or 2020 (in discussion), the future is not clear. For this reason and under this scenario of uncertainty, in the last few years new initiatives have emerged outside the Kyoto Protocol. These new initiatives seek to mitigate climate change, reducing GHG in the atmosphere in a voluntary way which is more flexible and quicker. GHG emissions in Spain The commitment of Spain to comply with the Kyoto Protocol assumes a reduction in GHG emissions of 15% on average for the period 2008-2012, relative to their annual emissions in a base year (1990). According to the Spanish Environment Agency's new estimates, GHG emissions decreased by 3.7% in 2011 compared to 2009. Based on these estimates Spanish GHG emissions are approximately 353.9 million tonnes of CO2e. This exceptionally sharp reduction might be the result of different causes, like the implementation of new measures to reduce the impact of the economic crisis, etc. However, the Spanish Climate Change and Clean Energy Strategy is supporting new initiatives that contribute to reducing the GHG emissions, not only through the Kyoto Protocol, but also through voluntary actions.

saction costs of the CDM; and the need for agile certiﬁcation processes for reductions that satisfy private initiatives in society. There is a need to take concrete and ambitious measures, consistent with an international context, which are committed to sustainable development. Asturian landscape

Voluntary carbon markets

Life Cycle Analysis and Carbon footprint

In the last few years, and with the scenario of GHG increase a reality, new initiatives outside the framework of the Kyoto Protocol have emerged. Currently, there is a parallel market where it is possible to apply different standards to put new GHG reduction strategies/programs in the market place which are not permissible under the "flexible mechanisms". Some of the drivers of this new market are: growing concern about climate change from individuals and companies (e.g. carbon footprint); it provides possibilities for countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol (e.g. USA); it gives opportunities to small reduction initiatives that are not viable because of the high tran-

Increasing effort is being made to understand the environmental impact of products production, activities and services. An important tool contributing to this effort has been life cycle analysis (LCA) (32, 33, 34, 35). LCA is a procedure for evaluating energy and environmental burdens relating to a process or activity, carried out through the identification of energy use/consumption, materials used and waste discharged in the environment. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the process or activity, comprising extraction and treatment of raw material, manufacturing, transportation, distribution, use, reuse, recycling and final disposal (22). A direct application of this procedure is the carbon footprint calculation, which specifically describes the total amount of GHG emissions caused directly or indirectly by an activity (36, 37). The carbon footprint is an indicator that allows the numerical assessment of

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2.2 Forest management in chestnut coppice and its role in carbon sequestration in wood products: the case study in Asturias

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the amount of GHG emissions produced as a result of a process, product, event or service, and is expressed as mass of CO2e. This indicator shows the environmental impact through emissions associated with different GHG inventories, and its calculation is a first step toward engagement and corporate environmental responsibility. The objective of calculating carbon footprint is twofold in terms of climate change mitigation. In the first instance, it is considered as an indicator of performance in terms of eco-efficiency, allowing the establishment of a baseline and future emissions and political goals for effective emissions reduction. In this way it contributes to global environmental equilibrium and corporate social responsibility. And in the second, the carbon footprint allows consumers to decide which product to buy based on the emissions generated in its production and marketing. Currently there are several methodologies available related to carbon footprint calculation (Table 1).

Table 1. Mean methodologies and standards to calculate the carbon footprint of products and companies.

2. Climate change and the forestry sector The global C cycle is recognized as one of the major biogeochemical cycles because of its role in regulating the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Increasing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are a major contributor to climate change (38). The carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems is distributed in three components: biomass of living plants (stems, branches, foliage and roots), plant detritus (branches and cones, forest litter, tree stumps and logs) and soil (organic mineral humus, surface and deep mineral soil). For that reason, forests play an important role in the global C cycle because they store large quantities of C in vegetation and soil, exchange C with the atmosphere through photosynthesis and respiration, are sources of atmospheric C when they are disturbed by human or natural causes (e.g. wildﬁres, use of poor harvesting procedures, clearing and burning for conversion to non-forest uses), and become atmospheric C sinks (e.g. net transfer of CO2 from the atmosphere to the land) during land abandonment and regrowth

after disturbance. Humans have the potential through forest management to alter forest C pools and ﬂux, and thus alter their role in the C cycle and their potential to change the climate. Forest management has become a top priority on the agenda of the political negotiations to mitigate climate change because forests may remove atmospheric CO2 and woody biomass can substitute fossil fuels. Moreover, forest management activities can help reduce global net CO2 concentrations by capturing and storing atmospheric CO2. However, this political imperative is at present running well ahead of the science required to prove its eﬀectiveness.

Forestry operator in action in chestnut stand

Also, in recent years, much attention has been focused on carbon accounting for harvested wood products in national GHG inventories. Wood products contribute to CO2 and CH4 emissions in the atmosphere when they are burned or decay in landﬁlls. The forest industry value chain begins in the forest and ends with the reuse or disposal of forest products. Forests are both sources of and sinks for GHG,

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and GHG are emitted in harvesting and transporting wood, as well as in manufacturing products from wood products. GHGs are emitted during the use of certain forest products as well in their recovery, reuse, and disposal. GHG studies of the forest industry value chain have commonly addressed most of these emissions, although commonly lacking, however, is an appreciation of the GHG benefits associated with carbon sequestration throughout the value chain. Wood carbon has several functions in climate change mitigation: a) wood carbon can be stored in forests by different silvicultural strategies; b) wood carbon can be stored as products in use or in landfills; c) wood products can be used for materials that substitute other materials with higher fossil fuel emissions; d) wood is used for energy in different stages of the life cycle (39).Carbon sequestration in forest products is only one piece of the overall climate profile of the forest industry value chain.

3. Carbon footprint in the wood and forestry sector The possible consequences of climate change on the wood and forestry sector are more complex than in any other industry (40, 41). The forests, which Harvested timber provide the raw materials for this industry, act as sinks, capturing CO2 from the atmosphere, and storing carbon, not only in the trees, but also in the ground, in roots and, ﬁnally, in wood products. However, forests and their carbon sink potential are clearly aﬀected by forest

management, climate and the increase of CO2. The forest industry gets much of its energy from the use of biomass, which, unlike fossil fuels, does not add “new” carbon into the atmosphere and which is considered "neutral carbon”. Therefore, given the nature of this sector, the forestry and wood industry has a “plus” with respect to other industries as the raw materials themselves facilitate measures to offset their own carbon footprint (42). It is advantageous to forestry companies to develop integrated systems whereby the carbon removal capacity of their stock is able to offset the emissions of their own industrial processes and transport (43). For this reason, the calculation of the carbon footprint in the wood and forest industry and subsequent emission reduction programs may facilitate the implementation of new actions such as: renewable energy or fuel saving, introduction of more efficient technologies, reductions in resources consumption, waste minimisation, etc. To evaluate the flow of carbon through wood use, life cycle analyses are required. Most of the analyses include the wood flow from harvest to landfill (Figure below).

Figure 1: Carbon flux in an integrated analysis covering forest dynamics and the wood product life cycle (Modified from Valsta et al. 2005 and Puettman and Wilson, 2006) (44, 45).

4. Case study in Asturias (Spain) The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a temperate deciduous species which has its greatest distribution in Spain along the Atlantic coast. Today, most coppiced chestnut forest are abandoned and not managed, so potential carbon stock is limited by the lack of silviculture. The selection of this species for this case study is because of its local importance: it is the species with the greatest area of distribution in Asturias, it is very popular in the region for social and economic reasons, and its improvement capacity (unmanaged or low production ma-

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2.2 Forest management in chestnut coppice and its role in carbon sequestration in wood products: the case study in Asturias

nagement). The sweet chestnut forest covers a total area of 123,549 ha in Asturias, mainly as coppiced stands (approximately 70,000 ha are pure coppice stands) (46) (Figure below). The average total volume (with bark) of sweet chestnut stands harvested in Asturias in 2008 was 21,737 m3 (47), which represents 34% of the total volume of this species harvested annually in Spain (109,285 m3) (48).

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Chestnut forest distribution in Asturias

The overall goal of the our study was to understand and evaluate the implications of diďŹ&#x20AC;erent silvicultural strategies in chestnut forests (Castanea sativa Mill.) in Asturias, considering their impact on carbon sequestration in forests and the carbon footprint of their wood products (Figure below).

Coppiced chestnut forest (Castanea sativa Mill.) to high forest.

The idea was to evaluate the potential carbon stock change resulting from improved forest management in chestnut forests: comparing the carbon stock under diďŹ&#x20AC;erent management alternatives (traditional and new alternatives) and the eďŹ&#x20AC;ect on the carbon stock of wood products (Figure at page 95, top).

Life cycle in wood products.

Initially, we quantiďŹ ed aboveground biomass and carbon content of unmanaged chestnut forests across 75 experimental plots varying in site quality and age. The implementation of forest management consisted of moving from a coppice system to high forest through dynamic thinning. Two management scenarios were evaluated: 1) traditional chestnut management without thinning; 2) early thinning at 8-12 years. Silviculture scenarios were based on the silvicultural guidelines issued in France (49, 50) (Figure below). We calculated the forest carbon stock using the CO2FIX model (version 3.2) and the data from the National Forest Inventory.

Forest management alternatives for chestnut forest in Asturias

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2.2 Forest management in chestnut coppice and its role in carbon sequestration in wood products: the case study in Asturias

We also calculated the carbon stock change in other pools such as primary wood products. We selected the most important chestnut sawmill in the region (which processes more than 80% of local chestnut wood) and six classes of primary wood products were evaluated: ﬁrewood, small beam, plank, board, log and beam (Figure below).

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Wood primary products

The methodology selected to calculate the carbon footprint of the wood products was PAS 2050:2011. The functional unit evaluated was 1 m3 of each wood product. These units were chosen after discussion with the manufacturer involved in the project. Cubic metres were the most common measure of quantities of wood primary products produced and distributed. The scope of the study was deﬁned for each product and a process map elaborated (Figure at page 97), considering the system boundary from harvesting to sawmill operations (cradle-to-gate), taking into account total resource consumption, but excluding the ﬁnal transportation of products to customers. The inventories were always based on primary data. Carbon footprint calculations were carried out using SimaPro® v.7.3.3 and the database Ecoinvent® v.2.2.

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Example of system boundary for a wood plank.

5. Results On the whole, the new management procedure makes it possible to produce wood with better quality than by managing the stand as a coppice, but it also makes possible a reduction in the percentage of harvesting residues in forest. Traditional management produces about 40%, compared to 20% with the new management procedure. The wood produced with the new forest management has a greater average diameter and provides an increase in the carbon stock of this pool. Also, it

means that there will be new types of wood product (e.g. beams) with a longer life cycle to incorporate into the value chain. In addition, simulations also showed the importance of taking into account forest management when considering the quantity of wood removed, because the new management procedure would increase the production of wood (400 m3/ha instead of 300 m3/ha, in 40 years), demonstrating that it can preserve forest stocks above the baseline. It is nevertheless more expensive because it requires more frequent and more technical forestry intervention. The most signiďŹ cant contributor to GHG emission

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across chestnut wood processing was dependent on the type of product. In the case of planks and boards, the most signiďŹ cant contributor to GHG emissions was manufacturing (more than 70%). The second largest contributor was road transport (17%), followed by forestry operations (12%). Emissions associated with sawmill operations were very signiďŹ cant because of timber drying: After being cut, the timber is dried in kiln-dried, as this provides a stable product for use in a range of uses. Air drying is a long, but low energy, process whereas kiln-drying requires a high energy input. Many kilns in Asturias, such as in the company studied, are powered by boilers that use natural gas and burn shavings and dust generated by the sawing and other processes in the sawmill.

Sawmill emissions by unit process

In the case of beams, small beams, logs and ďŹ rewood, the most important GHG emission was road transport (more than 70%), the second largest contributor was harvesting (27%), and manufacturing only contributed 3% of total emissions, because it is not necessary to dry the wood. A full breakdown of all emission sources can be found in Table 2.

Table 2: Percentages of wood products supply chain emissions.

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The carbon footprints of the wood primary products evaluated were: firewood: 74.1 kgCO2e/m3, small beam: 96.1 kgCO2e/m3, plank: 383 kgCO2e/m3, board: 389.8, log: 78.5 kgCO2e/m3 and beam: 95.2 kgCO2e/m3) (Figure on the right). There were significant differences between carbon footprints in all the wood products evaluated. Considering the forestry management scenarios, the wood produced by the project scenario had an average diameter greater than that of the baseline, hence the project will provide more sawlog wood, which, over time, will sequester more carbon. Moreover, it was found that

the carbon footprints of products resulting from the newer management system (beams and small

Carbon footprint of primary wood products from chestnut forest.

beams) are lower than those of the traditional products such as planks and boards.

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6. Conclusions As a conclusion to our technical assessment, we found that the new management system/regime increased the carbon stock of wood products and might increase the forest carbon stock as well. This study revealed the role of timber diameter and quality for carbon storage in wood products and the potential to increase the proportion of long-life cycle wood products by thinning. Wood production in the forests requires little energy, as does manufacturing of wood and ﬁnished products: in almost all cases, much less than the energy content of the wood itself (Figure below). The manufacture of sawn timber uses vastly less fossil fuel energy per unit of volume than does that of steel concrete or aluminium (55).

Cradle to gate carbon footprint of 1m3 chestnut wood plank in Asturias.

Also, for every use of wood there are alternatives and every different product use results in a different life cycle carbon footprint impact [57]. For example, steel studs can be replaced by wood studs, steel beams by wood joists, concrete walls by wooden ones, concrete slab floors by wood floors and biofuel by fossil fuel.

For instance, comparing a steel floor joist to an engineered wood beam joist results in a reduction in the carbon footprint by almost 10 tons of CO2 for every ton of wood used (56). The same analysis found that substituting a timber stud for a steel stud only reduces the carbon footprint by 2 tons CO2 for every ton of wood used. In both cases, a ton of wood used stores approximately 0.4 tons of carbon, equivalent to 1.5 tons CO2, over the life of the product, net of processing emissions (Lippke et al. 2011). Hence the material substitution effect is also an important result because with the new management procedure, the production of chestnut beams will increase. Incorporating carbon stock estimation in chestnut forests in Asturias will provide additional ecological and economic benefits associated with consistent production of quality wood products and valuable timber. And improved forest management practices can lead to additional carbon sequestration, which can offer financial incentive through voluntary carbon markets. Results of this type can serve as a guide to forest managers and decision makers. In addition, the results will be of interest to policy makers who might seek to promote policies that simultaneously enhance C sequestration and timber production.

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2 1. GHG emissions in Slovenia and use of renewable energy resources

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One of the obligations of Slovenia to enter and to be member of EU, was to respect goals agreed by Kyoto Protocol and to take legislation and operation actions in order to achieve them. For that reason Slovenia adopted in 2003 Operational program for decreasing of green house emissions (GHG) which aimed at decreasing GHG emissions for 8% by 2008 - 2012 comparing to 1986 (when emissions were 20 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent). Such binding means that emissions in this period shouldn't surpass 18,4 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. One of the goals of program was also to minimize costs of fulďŹ ling targets of Kyoto Protocol. Futhermore Slovenia accepted with a plan Europe 2020 decreasing emission of GHG for 20 % by 2020 compared to those in 1990, which was conďŹ rmed also by Doha amandment to Kyoto Protocol in late 2012. Slovenia, however, has not been too succesfull in reaching these goals. In 1999 for example, CO2 emissions were at 19,4 mio t and projections showed even further increasing. Emissions were increasing also in 2000-10 period, with a peak in 2008 when emissions even surpassed those in 1986 for around 5%. As Slovenia has not yet established a regional administrative level inbetween local communities and state administration, there are no legally binding regional policies, regional legislation, regional strategies/programs and regional data/statistics for Gorenjska region alone. It is, however, possible to say that due to increased energy consumption, both in industry, households and transport, as well as due to CO2 emissions from only partly sustainable agriculture, emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases has not been decreasing on Gorenjska regional level either. As a member of EU, Slovenia also has to follow new goals agreed

2.3 Management alternatives for forestry, biomass energy and wood construction sectors: the case study of Gorenjska Uroš Brankovič

within Climate-energy pact of EU for promoting REs. Goal of Slovene within the Europe 2020 Strategy in this aspect is to reach 25% share of RE by 2020. Slovenia set up by the Resolution on National energy program (2004) a range of goals aimed to increase share of renewable energies (RE) in energy consumption. Important argument for supporting mesu-

res for more of RE is also increasing price of imported (fossil) fuels, while some of local renewable energy resources (especially wood) are only partly exploited. In general, Slovenia declared sustainable economy, based on environmentally, socially and economically friendly production and consuming patterns as country’s development vision. This includes minimizing impact on environment, maximally use of natural materials and use local traditions, resources, know-how and skills. Based on above mentioned state stradetail n, gio re a sk nj tegies/policies and local potentials, acForest of Gore tivities of CARBON.CARE project outlined some approaches for 3 important and mutually reinforcing and connected elements which could foster successful, CO2 low economy: • Supporting the activation of sustainable forest management of inactive forest owners and conseqently increase relative forest carbon sink ; • Promoting cooperative business models for local wooden biomass heating which can bring most comprehensive environmental, economical and social advantages; • Promoting and supporting increase of local wooden constructing as a CO2 and regional development positive construction material.

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2. Activation of sustainable forest management of inactive forest owners Forests of Gorenjska region cover more than 143 000 ha (around 66% of total territory). In comparison to forests in the majority of other European countries, forests in most of Slovenia, also in Gorenjska, are generaly better preserved and have higher diversity of natural structures. Such a situation is a result of planned and attentive, t.i. sustainable or co-natural manageGorenjska landscape ment of forests in the past, especially after 1945. Thanks to a signiﬁcant growth in size and quality, forests represent for Slovenia a very important factor for carbon sink which is taken into account for Kyoto Protocol requirements. These quantitiues are extremly high – Slovenia has according to the UNFCCC data base 10 Mtons of CO2 sink in the forest, which represents as high as half of Slovene's annual CO2 emissions equivalent (20 Mtons CO2 ekq in 1986). At the Marakesh conference a CO2 sink which Slovenia can assert thanks to forest was limited to a 6% of above mentiomed starting emissions. That means that 1,32 Mt CO2 are counted in for Kyoto goals for CO2 emission reduction. Such sink allows Slovenia to avoid buying emission coupons in abrad or to take expencive meaures in other sectors, bringing by this a total ''income'' of 15 to 20 million EUR. In the period until 2020, this share of counted CO2 sink in frests is likely to be at around 3-5 % of a total one. Currently these quanties are not yet deﬁned for next period. As Slovene forests bind annualy up to 5 Mt of CO2, accumulation of another 3,68 Mt CO2 remains »unrecognized«. Slovenia has suggested that refe-

rential framework for CO2 sink should be at 25% of the annual growth of forest stock. Being actual or counted, recognize or unrecognized, such size of CO2 sink cannot be sustained on longterm. Optimal wooden stock for Slovene forests are estimated at 330 m3/hectar, number which is very close to the current one (300 m3/ha). For that reason, National Forestry Program plans to increase annual cut up to 75% of the potential one (today at around 68%). Furthermore, annual cut in following decades will have to come even closer to annual growth as otherwise stability of forest will be endangered due to overaging. Intensity of forest cut could be according to the simulation of Slovene Institute for Forestry icreased even up to 90% of annual growth, which would mean increase for more than 50%. This growth is, however, not so dramatic taking into account that level of explotation was in 2005 among lowest in EU, legging behing the EU average for 17 %. One of the callenges of National Forest Program is therefore to increase the annual cut, especially in private forests. Instead of counting CO2 sink

from forest within LULUCF, it is neccessary to use cutted wood as a low carbon material which can replace other materials with high carbon footprint. Wooden waste coming from wood processing industry and worn-out wooden products should be used as a source of energy with lower CO2 emissions as fossil fuels. It is important for future green economy, that wood as the most important natural resource of Gorenjska has been traditionally contributing signiďŹ citant share wooden chips, produced out of less quality forest wood

to the development of industry and rural economy as whole, particularly of farms in hilly rural areas. At the moment realized cut in private forest is 2,21 m3/ha, while growth is 7 m3/ha, which has led to a rapid growth in the stock of wood in these forests. As many of these forests were in near past (after 1991) also porly mainteined, this means that increase of wood stock does not mean equally improvement of forest/wood quality and consequently the increase in the value of wood. Denationalization of large forest estates, fragmentation of properties, weakening of expert support from

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Slovene Forest Service and ownership of unmotivated and unskilled (urban) owners lead to less maintenance forest works in private forests, even lower that the level of cuts. Such lack of forestry works in private forests is a big potential risk since the quality of Slovene forests is most endangered by natural weather disasters (wind, snow, sleet), bark beetles, and other pests. If demaged trees after such events are not restored, mainly due to lack of forest operations by private owners, this can damage quality of large forest areas for years, even decades. Increase of wooden stock in forests and consequently risk for forest overaging can also couse decrease in forest growth and deteriorate immunity of forest. Such processes can increase possibilities for catastrophic events (ďŹ res, pests), which release substantial emissions of acummulated CO2 in a very short time. From a development point of view, bed performance with potential annual cut means also less opportunities to lead development of forest in a direction that would optimisation of production potentials explotation. CARBON.CARE project has dealt with approaches to activate relatively new group of inactive forest owners. Starting already with a process of deagrarisation after 1945, but mainly as a ''product'' of forest denationalization after 1991, this relatively new group is very important in number and in the size of forest territory. They, however, remainded big and almost untouched challenge. This group is among all most characerized by fact that Slovene forest owners are in general less and less dependent on forest, and least motivated for management of forests. Many of them don't even know location, size and situation in their forests. Potentials in this non-faming cathegory of forest owners are relatively big, however, as most of their fragmented properties are located in lowland areas where production condition for wood are more favorable as well as terrain for forest management, comparing to larger estates located in less accesable areas.

For activation of less or inactive forest owners a 4-steps approach was developed: Autum in Gorenjska forests

Phase 1: Motivation and animation as a starting phase is implemented trough activities and topics which are less strictly connected with forestry or which present ﬁnancially attractive options connected with forest. These include a range of workshops, on-ﬁeld events and broad media articles which present nonproduction functions of forest, eg. as a spiritual and nature health resource, forest as cultural value, recreation in forest, etc. Such phase can be conducted by either foresters or external leccturers/authors. Another attractive topics to attract this group is a possibility of selling special, high-quality trees. These can be,

although very rare, sold for special purposes and at very hig prices, often at events called ''high-quality trees auctions''. Here they can reach (in Slovenia and Austria) up to 5000 EUR/m3 . Third topic is using own wood to provide private heating, which has became interesting since the raise of energy prices, availability of subventions and broad media covering and popularisation of wood as energy source. So activities with titles as ''Recharging your body in forest''/Wild food as a spring of vitality from forests, ''Sell just one tree and buy a car'', and ''Save mone for heating by using wood from your forest'' has became very effective in pulling out inactive forest owners, both male and female. It is worth mentioning that such invitation should be addressed as focused to the actual target group as possible. Otherwise ''motivator'' could attract wrong participants or forest owners could be in minority. Such selection can be done by districts forester who can suggest out of all district owners the non-active ones. Such activities, especially live one, are composed from two parts: one with topics which are not directly linked to forest works, and the second where topics about role, potentials and opportunities of forest ownership are presented and discussed in opendisscusion form. This second one follows the first one, and is a ''bridge'' to bring participants to the Phase 2. Once that owners come to participate, it is also time to present and discuss environmental and nature conservation aspects of forest management, which are less ''pulling'' as personal and financial ones. It is worth mentioning Detecting and recognizing

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inactive forest owners as pre-phase of this process. Two important step within such phase are a.) searching for all forest properties in a selected geographical unit and their grouping to individual forest owners, and b.) checking the current and past situation regarding implementation of forest works on these properties and by these forest owners. The later step is done by the help of district foresters and other local actors (members of local administration, local assocciations…) who know in detail most of these properties and owners. Phase 2 of activation process is grouping of such inactive owners into homogenyus group for courses for basic, but comprehensive understanding of forest management. Expert level of lecctures is adjusted to the target group which has non or limited knowledge about forests and forest management. In an organized series of lecctures both forests (structures, funtions…) and forest management are presented, with both opportunities and duties in case of active management, but also problems caused for their forest abd forest in general in case of being inactive . Three options should be presented before the continuation in decision-taking Phase 3: • Partly or complete selling of forest estate to more active fo rest owners, if possible to the neighbour; • Giving forest in lease or in contracted management to other, active forest owner(s) or forest management company. Here all possibilities need to be checked with district forester how to use available support and beneﬁts for owner and to ensure long-term sustainable development of forest; • Starting forest management by the actual forest owner. For both second and third option, all supporting, expert and legislation instruments should be presented, including consultation oﬀered by public Forest Service, binding forestry plans, subsidies, participation in forest owner assocciation, forest certi-

ﬁcation, optimal selling chanells for wood…

Phase 4: Active forest management – transition period – it is partly similar to the forest management of ''usual'' active owners with some important differences: owner needs more time for understanding and explanations by district forester, he has to go trough number of basic courses for forest works (eg. for work with chain saw) and has to re-organize his life in order to have time and finances for forestry duties and investments, especially in starting years if maintenance forest works were not done for longer period. In this phase forester will have to, either working with inactive or poorly active forest owners, take even more active approach towards them, especially to network them within forest owners assocciations, guide them about marketing/selling of wood and present wood certification as a marketing tools which ''press'' owners to manage their forest actively and sustainable. Especially in this phase, important actors in the process of activatisation are forest wners'asocciations, whose members can help him with day-tosay experiences, by cooperating and helping each other in forest works

(also by sharing equipment), uniting resources for joint and more successful marketing/selling of wood, and by joint planing of forest management in the case of neighbouring properties (eg. forest roads). Positive consequences of increased intensity in forest mainatainance works and share of cutting from annual growth would be increased vitally of forest with relatively higher capacity of CO2 sink. More ‘’waste’’ from forest works would increase share of renewable biomass energy which would minimize import of fuels with high CO2 emissions (partly trough transport emissions). And ﬁnally, increased quantities of quality wood would enable more public and private constructions to be done by local wood, with low CO2 emissions by shorter transport routes and production processes, while CO2 within would stay captured there for years.

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3. Business models for promotion of local wooden biomass heating Gorenjska region as Slovenia in general has no suďŹ&#x192;cient energy resources, both renewable and non-renewable. Large and only partly exploited potential of wooden biomass energy is, however, mostly limited to the hilly areas of the region, due to high share of forests areas with high potential for explotation of wooden biomass. Explotation of wooden biomass in low-lands is, beside fragmentated forest estates, minimized by well developed natural gas network. Some 95 % of energy of wooden biomass is used for heating with share of housing buildings heated by wooden biomass at around 25%. Currently used technology is still largely obsolete with low level of eďŹ&#x192;cency as the most of boilers are 15 and more years old and need to be replaced. But with growing prices of extra light heating oil in last decade, number of (new) and especially individual wooden biomass installations have been steadily growning. It is worth taking into account certain potential environmental, economical and social weaknesses of wooden biomass as an energy source, eg. soot, lower employment as wood processing industry, etc. Therefore it should be a priority to use mainly wooden waste which cannot be anymore processed in some other product as an energy resource. CO2 eneryg emissions from biomass burning are neutral as the same quanties would be released also during natural decay of trees. It was estimated within ďŹ rst Slovene Operative program for use of wooden biomass as energy resource (in the beginning of 2000s) that using potential of wooden biomass could replace up to 24% of heating oil, bring 1,8 % of all energy needed and 1,6 % out of 8% CO2 emission reduction within Kyoto Protocol. Furthermore it reduces CO2 transport emissions for importing fossil fuels, and motivates more intensive forest management, which often leads to higher relative CO2 sink capacities.

Additional beneﬁt for small and medium heating systems, which are topic of CARBON.CARE activities, is burning of biomass in centralized, highly eﬀective systems with more controled, monitored and lower gas emissions comparing to individual burning. From regional development aspect such systems contribute to a limited number of new jobs, and bring important new income and entreprenourship opportunitues.

wooden chips for a highly effective heating boilers

In year 2007, an Operative program for use of wooden biomass as energy resource (2007 – 2013) was adopted, aimed at increasing use of (all) biomass for heat and electricity production, focusing especially on the use of wooden waste. This was a 1st spe-

cial program for one of renewable source, underlined unexploited potential of energy from wood from forest management, wood processing and worn out wooden products. Only 1 million m3 out of 2 million m3 less quality wood is curently used for energy production. If all of this potential would be used, emissions of CO2 would be annualy decreased 225 000 t from 2013 on, with simultanious big gains regarding new jobs and additional income in rural areas. As a continuation and upgrading of this Action plan for Renewable energies in Slovenia 2010-2020 has a very important part of content dedicated to wooden biomass. 3 out of 6 programs 3 are dedicated to support investments in heating by wooden biomass, while 2 are dedicated to support it by awareness-rising, promotion and expert consulting). Further more special measures within the Plan were created exclusively and only for supporting use of wooden biomass energy , also to support increase quantities of available biomass and it’s supply. From above described policies we can conclude that political support on state level is relatively solid in Slovenia, and also substantial ﬁnancial instruments (credits, subsidies,…) are available for both private and public biomass production and heating installations. Slovene Environmental Public Fund provides public ﬁnancial support for public/private investments in renewables. Fund has 2 of it’s measures targeted on installing municipal and individual private heating system (trough favourable credits or non-refundable

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money).Also Slovene Rural development program, which will continue in the 2014-2014 period, provides non-refundable subventions, both for use of wooden biomass on farms for own consumption and to produce heath as a proďŹ table commercial activity on farms to support sustainable development of rural areas. Economic eďŹ&#x192;cency of wooden biomass is or better say has been till recently relatively low due to complicated and underdeveloped logistic coused by forest property fragmentation and partly inadequate infrastructure for forest works (forest roads, forest cableway). A 2007 study carried out in Gorenjska region showed, that out of three possible logistic systems, only harvesting by using forest cableways and with wooden chips partly prepared already trough regular forest proccessing works can give biomass competitive to fossil fuels. Prices of fossile fuels, which has grown for some 50% since the study was done, and committments of Slovenia regarding CO2 emissions, have ensured that biomass became much more competitive. With closing down of big wood processing companies Slovenia also lost the most important source for reliable and price favorable quantities for wooden waste for energy purposes (see the next chapter). According to to the draft of Program for sustainable development of wood added value chain main obstacles preventing faster introduction of remote control systems for biomass heating were also complicated business and administrative procedures for their implementation and lack of investors and capital. According to the survey conducted within CARBON.CARE project among Gorenjska local communitiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; administration, half of local communities already have their own experience with systems for heating by using biomass. So far it has been mainly used for heating of buildings for local administration, and edu-

cational and social service institutions. Their experiences are all positive, ranging from ‘’expectation fulﬁlled’’ up to many ‘’expectation exceeded’’ grades. Communities gave highest grades for results regarding minimizing costs for heating and increased quality of functioning and performance of heating systems. Five communities also expressed their mid-term plans for new investments into heating systems using wooden biomass. Among these investments, schools/kindergardens, medical centre and cultural house were most often mentioned, but also several public-private and private investmenst, eg. sport hall, hotel, etc. It is important that all of communities expressed their interest to include local entreprenours/farmers as biomass providers and heating system managers. Arguments for such decisions are lower prices for heating (3 communities), reliable supply (2 ), more intensive forest works and preventing overgrowing of forests (1), and general economical development (1). On the side of threats and weaknesses of such systems, communities listed too small and dispersed consumption due to dispearsed

(rural) population, dificulties in concluding agreement among all parties for joint systems, uninterested forest owners, already exisiting (non-biomass) boilers, insufficient suppliers&quantities of wooden biomass and overburdened local communities’ budgets with other urgent investments. Solutions suggested by CARBON.CARE project based on case studies and best practies studied are to overcome still existing weakness by one of ‘’ wooden energy contracting business models’’. Concept of the small wooden biomass energy contracting (holzenergie contracting), also called Local Energy Contracting (LEC), which is very useful and applicable for Gorenjska region, was developed in Austria in 1990s. Arguments were very similar to those in Gorenjska and Slovenia: high share of territory covered by forest (whic is even higher in Slovenia), high share of private and regarding the ownership very fragmented forests, and finally scattered population of rural areas where big remote heating systems wouldn't be logic from infrastructure and financial investment aspect. Important factor is, however, also strong and true dedication of political structures on all levels to increase use of domestic renewable resources and minimize dependency on imported fossils fuels.

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Within typical project of Local Energy Contracting (LEC) for settlements with either concentrated housing and/or biger public/private buildings (companies, schools, medical centres, sport facilities…), a individual company, local forest owner/farmer or some other mixed business form use existing public building, rent one or offer it's own building, and invest into biomass heating system including constructing all neccessary additional infrastructure (distribution network, storage for wooden chips…). It is still true that LEC project are mostly economical only if investments needed in building for new heating installation are minimal, either this one is rented or owned by contractor. Invester star new installations after signing long-term contract ( at least 15 years) for ensuiring supply of energy (heat) to public and/or private consumers. In this way heating of public/private building and group of homes becomes cheaper, more reliable and regarding to the dramatic changes on the world market with fossil fuels also more stabile in terms of prices as all energy comes from local sources. Money is circulating locally and also stay there, creates new jobs and minimize negative effects on environment (also becouse od less transport). When specified power of biomass heating plants varies from 50 kW up to around 300kW, we can talk about small and middle LEC project. Leading idea of good LEC project is that prices of biomass heating should be cheaper as the one using fossils fuels (at least 15%) and that projct is economical for investors. Favorable locations for small an midle size LEC projects are for example community cetres and buildings (school, municipality, medical centres, religious builidngs, homes for elders…), private or public sport/cultural centres, multiapartmen bloc(s) and group of close family houses or other similar smaller buildings. When talking about heating one bigger or two closely neighbouring building we call it ''building heating system''. Such investments are economical already at very small capacities if already existing heating plant can be used with smaller adoptions. When one heating plant provide heating for more of close

buildings we call it ''micronetwork''. It is generally economical when relation between lenght of hot water distribution network and kW production capacity does not exceede 2:1 ( eg. 100 kW of specified power using 200 metres or less of network). If it is neccessary to build a new heating plant, than projects are usually economical only after 200kW. A special importance has to be given to the type and dimension of boiler, so that it can cover effectively period of both low and high consumption, cope with a problem of heating peaks (eg. during cold winters when all simoltaniously demand lots of heating) and minimize risk of total cut off in heating supply due to technical problems. Within CARBON.CARE project we studied 3 socio-economic models which could be used for different mixtures of ‘’players’’ in roles of consumer-system manager-consumer and different structure of buildings to be heated.

Model A: Community vs. big private or public company – For large investments in remote control systems of biomass heating and wooden biomass supply, state and communities can by legislation, agreements and

favorable financial instruments attract those providers which are strong in terms of capital and professional competencess. Such actors can be existing public/private energy companies or existing public (municipal) utilitity companies. In this case, company takes over investment and management of such system, while biomass is often provided from local sources, but not necessary if it is not the most profitable option. Weakness of small number of existing examples in Gorenjska region is sometimes a lack of local attachment of such projects. Beside profibility, environmental, social and economical advantages for all of local community and region are therefore often less important (eg. importing of wooden biomass).

Model B: Community/Public consumer vs. small or medium regional/local private company - In this case small or medium local/regional company gets a concession from local community to invest and manage heating systems for parts of settlements or bigger public buildings, and often also supply wooden biomass from own/local forests or wood processing industry. Local attachment is in this case higher, also because managers of such companies live mostly in the region, and depend much on their opinion. Biomass is a product of local forest works or wood processing plants. Relationship between actors is strictly business one, with limited level of trust and very oﬃcial relations, which can sometimes prevent maximising of all potential beneﬁts. Model C – Individual/private consumers vs. small or medium local entrepreneur - The main characteristic of this model is that all actors and materials come

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from local area, and that provider and consumers are not striclx divided, but often function as a full or partial local cooperative. Ususally there is still one main biomass supply and heating system manager, but other consumers can also participate with their own biomass. This biomass can be contributed either actively when participants prepare it more or less until the stage of use (by own forest works or wood processing), while in the second case they just allow manager do implement forest works in their forests. BeneďŹ t of the second is that all forest maintaining works are regulary done with no expenses for owners. Final result is a lower price for heating, at least one or two new local jobs, better environment and often also regularly maintained forest. As such small and voluntary systems heavily depend of mutually ''clean accounts'' and trust, it is very useful to install heating station at each of consumer. Such separation of primary and secondary circel has many advantages for technically undisturbed operating, system management, actual consumption and ďŹ nal charging.

Business models for promotion of local wooden biomass heating

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Photos 1- 4 - Cycle of the currently rare, but very well functioning example of the Model C biomass heating system in Gorenjska: Transport of wood from local forests (1) – Wood processing into wooden chips by an external, local provider (2) – Wooden chips in the silo (3) – Biomass heating installation on the location of previous cattle barn (4)

Possible management submodel for type C which is not yet fully used in Gorenjska region is that a group of farmers-forest owners from the very start join their resources, set up new legal business entity-cooperative and invest into new heating plan with all neccessary constructing operations. As in general for such contracting, newly established cooperative signs contract with consumer (private or public) which lasts at least 15 years (close to the life-time of heating plant). Farmer or farmers sell their wooden chips to the cooperative, which charge heating to the consumers. Farmers' cooperative or company is therefore responsible for functioning, maintaining and eventual repairings in the heating plant. Most of consumers are in this way free of any work or duties. Consumer pays once, at the beginning, a subscription fee, and later monthly price for heating according to agreed rate system.

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4. Promotion and supporting tools for increase of public wooden constructing Construction sector, based on energy wasteful materials (steel, concrete, brick, plastic, aluminium) is one of the largest consumers of energy and therefore also contributes large share of greenhouse gas emissions. Solution is a wider use of wooden products which, troughout it’s life-cycle, store 2 tonnes of CO2 per m3. Wood is of all materials also the least energy consumptive and it is renewable. Wooden house, which is part of traditional housing arhitecture in Gorenjska, can together with all interior equipment, capture during it’s life-cycle around 60 tones CO2. But Slovene and Gorenjska wood-processing industry has been facing huge problems and decline after 1991. As one of ﬁrst measures aimed at fostering development of wood-processing industry, a Decree on green public procurements was adopted by Slovene Government in December 2011. Slovene decree on green public procurements requires that projecting public buildings should include at least 30% of volume

share of wood and wooden substances. Among important principles which shouldbe taken into account during implementation of green public procurement is a principle of cost estimation of entire life-cyxle of a product/service (Life Cycle Costing - LCC). Within the survey conducted as a part of CARBON.CARE project in spring/summer 2012, we looked for interest of Gorenjska local communities for investing in new or renowated public buildings in wooden variant. Among 18 of them, 11 responded to the survey; it is possible to assume with high certainty that non-responding communities or at least majority of them have no interest or plans to implement their future construction investments in a wooden form. As much as 7 out of 10 who plan bigger building investments in the future stated, that they highly wish to construct them in wooden variant or ware already in the implementation phase of such buildings. These investments were very diﬀerent in size and

purpose, going from education institutions (school, kindergarden), sport facilities (swimming pool), tourist infrastructure and even to small ‘’decoration’’ infrastructure (benches, street signs, other urban equipment…). Other responding communities expressed their opinion that wooden constructions are to diﬃcult and expensive to maintain, and that their life-time is too short. On the other hand, two groups were recognized among communities with high awareness or even enthusiasm about using (local) wood: ﬁrst one, within which communities were already aware which investments could be done by use of wood, while the communities of second group only had enhusiasm, but not very clear idea or

know-how where wood could be applied. Within this survey and other examples of public projects of wooden buildings studied within the CARBON.CARE project, many results were collected. These lead us to suggest a combined approach which could further raise awareness of local com munites as important investors and lead them step by step from the phase of interest to the final decision for From the 18th century Vogvar's house (left) in ‘’wood en’’ Duplje near Kranj to a modern, energy efficient family house near Tržič, wood represents past investment. and (sustainable) future of constructing sector in Gorenjska This would use also so called rolling approach and ‘’domino effect’’, and take into account awareness of public sector and development of Slovene market for environmentally less burdering products and services, especially lowenergy wooden constructins. Such approach include following steps: - Step 1: Best practice visit of all relevant stakehol ders to already implemented investments in wooden public building which was implemen ted under similar financial and other condition (fi nancing, subsidies…) and by using local com pany or at least local wood. It is important to in

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vite to such visits also users, managers, construc tors… of best practice building to explain their practical experiences, but also members of these groups from the ‘’visiting’’ community/region. By doing that, a broad public support can be raised, new business op portunities discovered and, as very important, some negative stereotypes cleared up. A very convenient example for this f irst phase is newly build wooden kindergarden in Preddvor, in very effective energy passive version. It is expected that awareness and interest would increase significantly after this first phase. But the fact that level of vi zualisation of such project among stakeholders and broad pu blic in the visiting community is usually low, can undermine the interest and support for further implementa tion. This is an obstacle dealt within the Step 2. - Step 2: Architecture workshop (s) on wooden va riants for planned constructions in a visiting community from Step 2. Such workshop would, by let ting participating architects to live for some time in the community, to talk with all relevant stake holders and to learn all the important data/information (existing/traditional wood from local forests, location of investment, available constructing companies, lo cally traditional architecture…) result in a number of ideas. These ideas would be visualized in large graphics or even in 3-D models, and then presented and explained to all stake holders and broad public. As the financial side of such workshops can be a heavy bur den for communities, especially smaller ones, our proposal, based on talking to several university institutions is to create them us a (summer) praxis for students of architecture or civil engineering. Faculties of both Slovene universities now give a special attention on wooden constructions, so there shoul dn’t be problem with cooperation. Beside regular professors from faculties, expert from constructing companies could participate as leccturers or mentors as well, as they would be

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New wooden and energy passive kindergarden in Preddvor in Gorenjska region, built by local company. As such is also a possible location for Step 1 in a motivation process for more of public wooden constructions.

probably interested to participate in ‘’creating’’ potential business opportunity. - Step 3: Decision-making with assistance – After the phase 2 and if community would de cide for wooden variant of building investment, phase 3 would mean political decision wi thin the community. Due to possibility of more questions rainsed and very diverse inte rests, administration should be assisted by external experts, either about technical/techno logy details, spatial and environmental views or about ﬁnancing from diﬀerent sources, especially EU and state subsidies and by public-private partnership. These experts could be participants of Phase 3 workshops, experts from public Local Energy Agency (one of them exist also for Gorenjska region), regional development agencies and experts fro constructing companies. t could be said, that such approach would ensure that much of public infrastructure plans, and even those who are now just unclear ideas, would eventually successfully realize in wooden variant and by positive impact for regional CO2 capture and local/regional de velopment.

Conclusions

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Green economy is generally recognized to represent a key opportunity in order to cope successfully with the economic crisis and to increase economic growth, with a signiﬁcant reduction of CO2 emissions in all the strategic sectors. With its Roadmap for moving to a competitive low-carbon economy in 2050 and preparatory studies, the EU is looking beyond 2020 objectives and setting out a plan to meet the long-term target of reducing domestic emissions by 80 to 95% below 1990 by mid-century as agreed by European Heads of State and Governments. Low-carbon innovation is needed, and the sectors Rural landscape in Ferrara

responsible for Europe’s emissions can make the transition to a low carbon economy over the coming decades. As it is well known, Roadmap2050 has explored pathways for speciﬁc key sectors, industry, transport, buildings and agriculture/forest, where all will have to contribute according to their technological and economic potential. As global food demand grows, the share of primary sector in the EU's total amount of emissions will raise to about a third by 2050. But reductions are possible and it is vital to achieve these emission cuts in the agricultural sector as well; otherwise other sectors will need to make a bigger reduction eﬀort. Agriculture will need

Towards a low-carbon energy patterns in the primary sector: the lesson learnt Elena Tamburini

to cut emissions from fertilizer, manure and livestock and can contribute to the storage of CO2 in soils and forests. In a low-carbon society we will live and work in low-energy, low-emission buildings, with intelligent heating and cooling systems. We will drive electric and hybrid cars and live in cleaner cities with less air pollution and better public transport. We will also change towards a more healthy diet with more vegetables and less meat, contributing to reduce emissions. Many of the cited technologies exist today but need to be developed further. Besides cutting the vast majority of its emissions, Europe could also reduce its use of key resources like oil and gas, raw materials, land and water. In this deﬁnition, the low carbon economy stresses the idea that green economy should decouple the growth economy targets from the depletion of natural resources, whilst trying to decrease the contribution to the global climate change created

by people. In fact there is now a widespread consensus that the development of resource-efficient and green technologies will be a major driver of growth. As part of the Common Agriculture Policy reform process the EU would introduce various agri-environmental measures, the so-called “accompanying measures”, to encourage the adoption of environmentally friendly farming practices and the afforestation of agricultural land. In this scenario, there is a considerable effort underway to develop agri-environmental indicators to help assess the current state and trends in the environment conditions in agri-

culture and forestry sectors and to provide a tool for policy monitoring, evaluation and projections. It will be necessary to build on these initiatives, to develop indicators as a tool for policy makers in addressing the different EU policy challenges previously outlined. Our experiences within the CARBON.CARE project have demonstrated that LCA could be an adequate and widely sharable methodology to be profitably used in primary sector. Nevertheless further studies are needed to include in the calculation specific agricultural variables as interaction between soil and xenobiotic substances, or biodiversity preservation. Intensive efforts to activate a benchmarking process have to be promote in primary sectors, especially at regional and local level. In particular a benchmarking

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Conclusions

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of environmental performance by agro-forestry companies has to be introduced as a tool for focusing more closely on an area for improvement, and facilitating the identification of the gap between company performance and given performance. It’s obvious that in agriculture and forest sectors could be not easy to establish a clear and unique benchmark, because of the number of unpredictable variables as climate trends, rainfalls, temperatures, fertilizers and pesticides needs, soil characteristics, plant diseases, geographic position, which bear upon all the occurred activities. Thus, the main point of criticism could be represented just by two contrasting visions, focusing on local/regional aspects, but unavoidably being inserted in a global overview. Strategies to enhance local adaptation capacities to look far away are therefore needed, from one side, to minimize local environmental impacts and, from other side, to maintain regional stability of economic food production in a worldwide perspective of the market. Especially because, as CARBON.CARE results have largely demonstrated, agriculture and forestry offer several opportunities to mitigate the portion of global CO2 emissions that are directly dependent upon land use, land-use change, land-management techniques and wooden/green building. Choosing effective mitigation strategies will represent a key challenge for farmers and forestry operators over the coming decades. Optimal strategies are those that, via careful management of soils and forests, maintain or increase the resilience and stability of production systems, while also sequestering soil carbon and/or reducing fluxes from farm/forest activities The case study of the Ferrara Province has demonstrated that the definition and use of a sharable methodology able to account for all the farm inputs and outputs, as LCA, is an essential starting point for any environmental strategies to be implemented. It has also demonstrated that, at local level, agriculture has a relatively

Tractors in action in the some fields in Ferrara

low impact for producing a functional unit of product, compared to its processing phase. On the other hand, more in-depth analysis would deserve the interactions between soils and fertilizers/pesticides residues, which has great impact on human and eco-toxicity, eutrophication and acidiﬁcation potential. The principal area of improvement of environmental impacts in the agriculture ﬁeld operations are related to the substitution of old tractors, machineries and irrigation equipment with to date BAT, and the reduction of packaging materials for fertilizers and pesticides. Surprisingly, water consumption for irrigation has a negligible impact on the total amount of water that burdens on the production of 1 kg of product. The case study in the Asturias on chestnut coppice, has demonstrated that at local level forest management activities can help reduce global net

CO2 concentrations, by capturing and storing atmospheric CO2. New silviculture management system/regime can increase the carbon stock of wood products, and might increase the forest carbon stock as well. Incorporating carbon stock estimation in chestnut forests in Asturias will provide additional ecological and economic beneﬁts associated with consistent production of quality wood products and vaThe Maders Siero pilot enterprise in Asturias region

luable timber. And improved forest management practices can lead to additional carbon sequestration, which can oﬀer ﬁnancial incentive through voluntary carbon markets. Results of this type can serve as a guide to forest managers and decision makers. In addition, the results will be of interest to policy makers who might seek to promote policies that simultaneously enhance C sequestration and timber production. The case study in Gorenjska Region has driven positive results in developing business models for promotion of local wooden-waste heating and public wooden constructing. This has been carried out suggesting a combined approach which could further

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Conclusions

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raise awareCARBON.CARE project meeting in Ferrara ness of local communities and companies as important investors, and accompanying them step by step from the phase of interest to the final decision for ‘’wooden’’ investment. Positive consequences of increased intensity in forest maintenance works and share of cutting from annual growth would be increased the capacity of CO2 sink. And finally, increased quantities of quality wood would push more public and private constructions to be done by local wood, with low CO2 emissions by shorter transport routes and production processes, while CO2 within would stay captured there for years. Although many positive interactions between stakeholders have been identified and realized during CARBON.CARE experiences, and different socio-economic scenarios have been studied, we have only lay the ground for the construction of a solid privatepublic partnership as an innovative tool to create win-win conditions for all partners involved. Therefore, this deals with finding an innovative way to unite the efforts, commitments and knowledge of different groups and individuals that can contribute – each in their own way – to the achievement of a common goal: the reduction of CO2 emissions and overall environmental impacts from one side, and from the other side, the development of a local economy with low car-

bon rate that is more competitive and ecological. Certainly, over the coming decades, the global and regional challenges connected to anthropogenic climate will help to maximize collaboration among scientists, farmers and forests operators, politicians, and citizens, in order to ensure efďŹ cient responses to a global problem that is in essence interconnected across years, regions, and societal sectors.

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appendix Annex 1 Envisioning a new energy and climate future

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Policy makers often feel trapped between conflicting goals when addressing climate change. On the one hand they see the need for urgent action, but on the other they fear higher costs, slower economic growth, and a reduced standard of living for the citizens they serve. The media often reinforces these concerns with messages that tackling climate change is all about higher prices, economic sacrifice, and diminished consumer lifestyles. It is already well-established that by adopting the right mix of policies, incentives, and new technologies, policy makers in the world’s wealthier, developed nations would dramatically restrain the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere, even as they promote job growth and wealth creation. This report, part of the outcome of Lo.Ca.Re Interreg IVC Project, tried to find out Regions’ potential signals of transition towards a “low-carbon revolution” that can provide both prosperity and environmental security. It showed that Lo.Ca.Re Regions believe that key ingredients to this transition involve innovation in energy and technologies, and that a low carbon future is a smart future. They all seem to be positive and optimistic about the outcome of a low carbon transition (for society, the environment, and in particular for the economy), but to varying degrees. All Lo.Ca.Re regions seemed to be aware and active in the implementation of the EU “Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050” COM(2011)112 in their policy and most of them are trying to lead the transition process; some Regions already had national/regional low carbon Roadmap/strategy or specific regulation on LCE (directive, law, etc.) and have applied policies and practices specifically in the field of LCE, while others are implementing or have plans to do it, some at a local level. Additionally, Lo.Ca.Re Regions seemed to agree that a change in lifestyle and education is crucial for moving towards green thinking and increased consciousness of resource scarcity and its utilization. The EU roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050 EU low carbon “Roadmap2050” is founded on the results and findings based on a comprehensive global and EU modelling and scenario analysis on how the EU

Moving to a competitive low carbon economy A brief synthesis of the “New Climate Analysis” report written by Aldo Treville and Maria Paola Dosi of Emilia Romagna Region with the support of the LoCaRe Working Group could shift towards a low carbon economy (LCE) by 2050 against the backdrop of continued global population growth, rising global GDP and varying global trends in terms of climate action, energy and technological developments. The approach is based on the view that innovative solutions are required to mobilize investments in energy, transport, industry and information and communication technologies, and that more focus is needed on energy efficiency policies. Towards a low carbon society Greater social equity could be an additional benefit of such a low-carbon revolution. Escalating energy costs, and the energy insecurity they impose, inflict a higher toll on lower-income consumers than they do on the middle class and the wealthy. This is an issue not just for the poor in impoverished nations but for the poor within wealthy countries as well. Improving energy productivity would thus disproportionately ease

the burden on the poor, helping narrow the economic and social divide. Economic growth, social equity, and a healthy climate need not be opposing goals. By dramatically increasing “carbon productivity”— just as we have increased labour and capital productivity in the past— we can enjoy a growing economy and falling greenhouse gas emissions. Better still, the prospect of an improvement in social equity can avoid the risk of a “carbon divide” the wealthy and the poor. A smart future in energy and technologies: urban and rural area For the first time in human history, more people live in cities than in rural areas; the social, economic, environmental, and engineering challenges of this transformation will shape the 21st century. A low carbon transition has to envision the different dynamics in urban” and “non-urban” areas, such as in a city area with respect to a regional area (i.e. city mobility vs regional transport). The building sector can face, for instance, the urban heat islands (UHI) issue in urban areas, while in rural areas energy efficient refurbishment is the key challenge. The agriculture sector has also different dynamics in urban and rural areas if we don’t neglect the existence of “urban farming”. Low carbon transition is also affecting urban agricul-

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ture (see New York “Battery Park Farm” project, London ““Bright Farm”, Sweden “Vertical farm”, and Milan “Vertical Forest” The big challenge is to make regions and cities to be places where urban and rural new energy and technologies overlap to form smart regions and cities that promote low carbon healthy living and food sustainability. With the same overlapping logic, industrial symbiosis can be a subset of industrial ecology, with a particular focus on material and energy exchange, since it is claimed that an industrial ecosystem may behave in a similar way to the natural ecosystem wherein everything gets recycled (See the Danish case of Kalundborg and Emilia Romangna case of APEA). The role of the Regions in the low-carbon transition Regions are playing three different roles in the low-carbon transition, according to their specific formal competences. Firstly, some Regions are playing a role as an authority and planning body; they are able, through the broad approach to economic development, to focus on lowcarbon transition, by promoting more efficient work and support low-carbon growth. Through sector planning of for instance energy, waste, water, agriculture and mobility, Regions have access to promoting green and sustainable initiatives with a potential for growth (i.e. Energy Planning in Emilia Romagna Region). Secondly, Regions are playing a role as a mediator. Regions are promoting the lowcarbon transition by an efficient and business friendly service to the private enterprises – and a broad business policy with a green profile; they are creating a solid framework for the local business community, and at the same time having a dialogue with the enterprises on climate and a environmentally friendly development of technologies. Regions are entering into new models of co-operation with enterprises and research institutions; the success of such cooperations can partly be explained by the necessity of demolishing the barriers between the different partners (i.e. “Lean Energy Cluster” in Southern Denmark Region and “Bio-based Economy” in Zeeland Province). Thirdly, Regions are playing a role as an enterprise; when choosing green and energy-efficient products and solutions, Regions are contributing to investments in low-carbon growth – and at the same time be a good example for citizens and enterprises. They are investments in energy-friendly renovations of buildings, su-

stainable energy, pumps, and environmentally friendly products. Regions can also increase the demand for new green products. Through public- private partnerships, Regions can play a role by demanding a new technological product (i.e. Green Public Procurement in Vastra Gotland and Emilia Romagna . The New Climate method New climate could be defined as the positive attitude of the Regions in their common initiative to reduce CO2 emissions regionally and locally. Focusing on the low carbon solutions (policies, strategies, tools, measures), the LoCaRe Regions could reach the LCE goals defined by the EU 2020 strategy and contribute to economic growth at the same time. To accelerate their transition process towards LCE, the recognized value added is represented by the mutual exchange of experiences and best practices. Nevertheless the local context where specific solutions are born are different and deserve to be carefully analyzed in order to identify the key factors that could drive and make speeder the process, taking also into account the ongoing heavy financial crisis.

In the report a 3 steps method has been proposed for Regions: 1) picture at zero-point, as a specific territorial contextualization of the economic sectors and of their potential for change. 2) best practices identification, as excellence expressions of the potential for change, in using less energy and natural resources both in urban and rural areas. 3) diffusion process development, identifying a key role for national and local institutions as facilitators to go from a single “hot spot” excellence best practice to the whole economic and territorial context. Analyzing the key factors of transferability (cross-fertilization), it could be possible to define a sort of identity card for each BP in order to promote its diffusion and to spread the experiences firstly inside the Region where the best practice was born, then exporting the success factors from one region to another. An “identity card for diffusion” for BPs is presented as a useful checklist table for a diagnosis of the potential for their spreading and exchanging. The case study of a BP of the building sector and its connected supply chain in Emilia-Romagna is presented. The full report is available for download at: www.locareproject.eu

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appendix Annex 2 1. General introduction to LCA methodology

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LCA is a methodology to assess all environmental impacts associated with a product, process or activity by accounting and evaluating the resource consumption and the emissions. According to ISO (ISO, 2006) LCA is divided into four steps: (1) goal and scope deﬁnition; (2) inventory analysis (LCI); (3) impact assessment; (4) interpretation.

(1) goal and scope definition Goal definition and scoping is perhaps the most important component of an LCA because the study is carried out according to the statements made in this phase, which defines the purpose of the study and the expected product of the study. For LCA studies in the agricultural sector this could be for instance to investigate the environmental impacts of different intensities in crop production or to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of intensive or extensive arable farming systems. Furthermore, this step describes the system under investigation, its function and boundaries, and assumptions. Subsequently, a reference unit

The Life Cycle Assessment methodology (functional unit) is defined, to which all environmental impacts are related to, and which should represent the function of the analyzed system. The purpose of functional unit (FU) is to provide a reference unit to which the inventory data are normalized. The definition of FU depends on the environmental impact category and aims of the investigation. The functional unit is often based on the mass of the product under study. However, nutritional and economic values of products and land area are also being used. The functional unit recommended, as the most LCA studies is 1,000 kg of the specific product. A second functional unit based on the cultivated area, like 1 hectare (kg/ha) can be used. The system boundary of a system is often illustrated by a general input and output flow diagram. All operations that contribute to the life cycle of the product, process, or activity fall within the system boundaries.

(2) inventory analysis (LCI) The inventory analysis compiles all resources that are needed for and all emissions that are released by the speciﬁc system under investigation

and relates them to the defined functional unit. This phase is the most work intensive and time consuming compared to other phases in an LCA, mainly because of data collection. The data collection usually occurred fulfilling a specific questionnaire. It includes questions about all the inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, water, fuel and energy used in the time coverage considered in the study. Information about product distribution until the exportation harbor should also be requested: truck type and total distance traveled as well as the exportation countries. Other aspects of the tillage like general data of the farm, total area, effectively cultivated area, density of plants, cultivated varieties, crop and harvest management types, number of employees should also be collected. Type of soil, altitude, climatic conditions as annual pluviometric and solar radiation indexes can be further associated to the generated inventory. Data collection can be less time consuming if good databases are available and if customers and suppliers are willing to help. Many LCA databases exist and can normally be bought together with LCA software: Ecoinvent (51), US Input Output Database (52); Danish Input Output Database (NAMEA, National Accounts Matrix including Environmental Accounts) (53); ETH-ESU (54). Data on transport, extraction of raw materials, processing of materials, production of usually used products such as plastic and cardboard, and disposal can normally be found in an LCA database. Data from databases can be used for processes that are not product specific, such as general data on the

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production of electricity, coal or packaging.

(3) impact assessment The impact assessment aims at a further interpretation of the LCI data. The inventory data are multiplied by characterization factors (CF) to give indicators for the so-called environmental impact categories. Impact category indicators = ∑j (Ej or Rj) × CFi,j where: impact category indicators = indicator value per functional unit for impact category i; Ej or Rj = release of emission j or consumption of resource j per functional unit; CFi,j = characterization factor for emission j or resource j contributing to impact category i. The characterization factors represent the potential of a single emission or resource consumption to contribute to the respective impact category. Impact assessment in LCA generally consists of the following elements: classification, characterization, normalization and valuation. Classification is the process of assignment and initial aggregation of LCI data into common impact groups. Characterization is the assessment of the magnitude of potential impacts of each inventory flow into its corresponding environmental impact (e.g., modeling the potential impact of carbon dioxide and methane on global warming). Characterization provides a way to directly compare the LCI results within each category. Characterization factors are commonly referred to as equivalency factors. Normalization expresses potential impacts in ways that can be compared (e.g., comparing the global warming impact of carbon dioxide and methane for the two options). Valuation is the assessment of the relative importance of environmental burdens identified in the classification, characterization, and normaliza-

tion stages by assigning them weighting which allows them to be compared or aggregated. According to ISO the aggregation of inventory results to impact categories is mandatory in LCA. The list of impact category indicator values for a system under investigation is called its environmental proﬁle. The list of the impact categories as proposed by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) is reported in table A.1, and will be detailed in the following paragraphs. Table A.1

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Impact categories could be also classified on the basis of the extent of their effects in global effects (global warming, ozone depletion, etc.); regional effects (acidification, eutrophication, photo-oxidant formation, etc.); and local effects (nuisance, working conditions, effects of hazardous waste, effects of solid waste, etc.).

(4) interpretation The purpose of an LCA is to draw conclusions that can support a decision or can provide a readily understandable result of an LCA. The inventory and impact assessment results are discussed together in the case of an LCA, or the inventory only in the case of LCI analysis, and signiﬁcant environmental issues are identiﬁed for conclusions and recommendations consistent with the goal and scope of the study. This

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is a systematic technique to identify and quantify, check and evaluate information from the results of the LCI and LCIA, and communicate them eﬀectively. This assessment may include both quantitative and qualitative measures of improvement, such as changes in product, process and activity design; raw material use, industrial processing, consumer use and waste management.

2. Impact categories Depletion of abiotic resources (AR) The issue related to the depletion of abiotic resources, such as fossil fuels or minerals is their decreasing availability for future generations. For LCA studies on arable crop production the consumption of fossil fuels and minerals such as phosphate, potash and lime are sub-categories of particular importance.

Land use The ‘land use’ impact category describes the environmental impacts of utilizing and reshaping land for human purposes. The environmental consequences of land use such as arable farming or urban settlement are the decreasing availability of habitats and the decreasing diversity of wildlife species. This new method treats ‘natural land’ like a resource and it is assumed that the utilization of land leads to a reduced availability of this resource. Natural land can be defined as the sum of actually uninfluenced area and the accumulated remaining naturalness of the land under use. Climate change Emissions of gases with specific radiative characteristics lead to an unnatural warming of the Earth's surface, which in turn will cause global and regional climatic changes. This environmental impact is commonly described as ‘global warming’. The term ‘climate change’ indicates that the possible consequences of global

warming concern more elements of the global climate than only the temperature (e.g. precipitation, wind). The main anthropogenic contributors to the enhanced greenhouse effect are (sorted according to their contribution): CO2 (65%), methane (CH4, 20%), halogenated gases (e.g. CFCs, 10%) and N2O (5%). The diﬀerent potential of these emissions to contribute to climate change is represented by their GWP, measured as Kg CO2 eq/year. GWP’s are normally based on modelling and are quantiﬁed for time horizons of 20, 100 or 500 years for a number of known greenhouse gasses. The emission of greenhouse gasses is regulated by the Kyoto Protocol under the Climate Convention. Global warming potentials for the known greenhouse gasses are developed by the “Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change” (IPCC) and they are revised continuously as the models used in the calculations are developed.

Toxicity This impact category includes all direct toxic eﬀects of emissions on humans (human toxicity) and ecosystems (eco-toxicity), this latter further divided, as marine aquatic, freshwater and terrestrial. Emissions,

which may be potentially toxic and are released by arable farming systems, are (1) inorganic air pollutants like NH3, SO2 and NOx, (2) plant protection substances, and (3) heavy metals.

Acidification Acidification is mainly caused by air emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2, share: 36% for EU15), nitrogen oxides (NOx, 33%) and ammonia (NH3, 31%). SO2 primarily originates from combustion of sulfur-containing coal and oil, NOx from combustion processes in motor vehicles, whereas NH3 predominantly originates from animal husbandry. SO2, NOx and NH3 are also released during arable crop production. In particular the use of organic and mineral fertilizers can result in important emissions of NH3 due to volatilization during and after application of urea and ammonium-containing fertilizers. Acid deposition has negative effects on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Eutrophication Eutrophication can be defined as an undesired increase in biomass production in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems caused by high nutrient inputs (principally N and P), which result in a shift in species composition. In surface waters eutrophication is particularly serious because it can lead to algal blooms and the subsequent oxygen-consuming degradation processes, which finally may result in the death of the total aquatic ecosystem. Ozone Layer Depletion The reduction in the ozone concentration in the stratosphere will probably have a serious effect on the

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life on the surface of the Earth. It can cause damage to plants, animals, and humans. The substances contributing to stratospheric ozone depletion are defined as substances which are sufficiently stable in the atmosphere to allow a substantial fraction to reach the stratosphere, and contain chlorine or bromine which, upon release into the atmosphere, will participate in a chemical decomposition of ozone. The potential depletion of stratospheric ozone is quantified by using ozone depletion potentials (ODP) for substances having the same effect as CFC-11, that it is the substances having the largest effect on ozone depletion.

Photochemical smog Ozone is formed in the troposphere under the inﬂuence of sunlight when nitrogen oxides are present.When VOC’s are also present, peroxy radicals can be produced. Peroxy radicals are highly reactive and toxic compounds, and the presence of peroxy radicals can result in an increase of the concentration of ozone through a complex reaction pattern. Ozone is a secondary pollutant, as there is practically no ozone present in source emissions derived from human activity. The principal precursors of tropospheric ozone are NOx, VOC’s as C2H4 and CO.

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Authors of the photos included in this publication

Staša Polajnar, Archive of the Community of Preddvor, Boštjan Škrlep, Uroš Brankovič, Aleš Godnov, Matjaž

Mauser, www.slovenia.info (source), Matej Vranič (author), the photographic archive of the Province of Ferrara, the photographic archive of CETEMAS

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Project team Celia Martínez Juan Majada Lorena Berdasco CETEMAS, Wood and Forest Technology Center, Asturias Uroš Brankovič Vlasta Juršak Centre for Sustainable Rural Development of Kranj Elena Tamburini Sandro Bolognesi Marco Meggiolaro Laboratory of Tecnopole Land&WaterTech, Ferrara Riccardo Loberti Province of Ferrara

Project Partners The Laboratory of Tecnopole Land&WaterTech is an academic institution which is a part of the Department of Biology and Evolution in the University of Ferrara, devoted to applied research in the field of both water cycle optimization and agricultural resources management. Its mission is to contribute to the transition of local agriculture towards innovative technology and environmental protection, encouraging sustainable development of the local farms, and, equally importantly, to disseminate and transfer know-how and technologies, promoting their use in the manufacturing and social sectors. Laboratorio del Tecnopolo Terra&AcquaTech Via Luigi Borsari, 46 - 44121, Ferrara (Italy) T: +39 0532 455329, F: +39 0532 249761 E: tme@unife.it, W: www.unife.it CETEMAS, Centro Tecnológico Forestal y de la Madera, is a private non-profitmaking organization, established in 2009 by a group of forest and timber companies, the Regional Government and several Universities and Research Centres as part of the network of Technology Centres of Asturias (Northern Spain). Our mission is to promote the health, diversity, productivity and management of forests and forest-based economies through efficient and sustainable use of our wood resources. In addition, we are making efforts to promote information exchange between staff engaged in wood-related research, to facilitate the shared use of research facilities, to enhance research programmes and to promote technology transfer to the end users. CETEMAS consists of the following areas of work: Sustainable Forest Management, Wood Technology and Timber Construction. Fundación CETEMAS - Centro Tecnológico Forestal de la Madera Finca La Mata sn/ 33820 Grado, Asturias T: 00 34 985754725, F: 00 34 985754729 I: cmartinez@cetemas.es W: www.cetemas.es The Centre for Sustainable Rural Development Kranj (CTRP Kranj) is a non-profit regional institute offering expert support and networking to individuals, NGOs, small companies and local communities of Gorenjska region in their activities for economic, environmental and social development of the rural areas. The Centre is focused exclusively on initiatives based on the sustainable management and the preservation of natural and cultural heritage as factors that raise the quality of life for the entire community. The main targets of it’s work have been promoting small entrepreneurship and the employment of vulnerable groups, green forms of traditional and modern activities in rural areas (organic farming, ecotourism), sustainable use of natural/local resources, and education/awareness raising for sustainable development. CTRP – Center za trajnostni razvoj podeželja Kranj Centre for Sustainable Rural Development Kranj Strahinj 99A, SI-4202 Naklo (Slovenia) T: + 386 4 257 88 28, F: + 386 4 257 88 29 E: info@ctrp-kranj.si, W: www.ctrp-kranj.si

CARBON.CARE project “improvement of CARBON sequestration practices in agricultural and forestry sec-

tors towards low-CArbon REgional energy patterns”,

which is part of the LoCaRe initiative, is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund in the frame of the INTERREG IVC Programme 2007-2013.

INTERREG IVC provides funding for interregional cooperation. Its aim is to promote exchange and transfer of knowledge and best practices across Europe. It is implemented under the European Community’s terri-

torial co-operation objective and financed through the

European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The overall objective of the INTERREG IVC Programme is to im-

prove the effectiveness of regional policies and instruments through the exchange of experiences

among partners who are ideally responsible for the development of their local and regional policies. The areas of support are innovation and the knowledge economy, environment, energy and risk prevention.