Researchers, Lawmakers Debate Carbon Markets

Researchers, Lawmakers Debate Carbon Markets

Agricultural emissions² are getting more attention from U.S. officials, researchers, and industry professionals. One big area of debate is the link between carbon storage and carbon markets.

New Policies

Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a $300 million investment to monitor agricultural emissions. The investment will help create a research group to monitor carbon levels in soil.

American lawmakers also proposed a measure to support research needed to "properly credit soil carbon storage."

The USDA announcement and the law are both aimed at the difficult question of how to measure carbon stored in soil. The issue is important if the young soil carbon market is to avoid the opposition³ directed at current carbon credit markets.

Carbon storage

The Congressional Research Services describes a carbon market as an economic idea "that supports the buying and selling of environmental commodities that signify GHG (greenhouse gas) emission¹ reductions" or storage.

The general idea is that some kinds of farming methods can support carbon storage. As a result, some farmers can get money in the form of carbon offsets⁵ — payments that companies can make that support carbon storage in farms.

Shalamar Armstrong is an associate professor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. "The more carbon you store from the atmosphere with your crops, and the more crops grown throughout the year, you offset⁴ some of your waste," he said. The carbon that was stored would have instead been released into the atmosphere, he explained.

But much about carbon storage remains⁶ unknown.

"The science piece (of carbon credits) has really lagged behind, particularly when it comes to things like monitoring, reporting and verification," said Cristel Zoebisch, a policy director at climate organization Carbon180.

Armstrong has been trying to help fix the problem of measuring carbon storage. He runs a lab where researchers are investigating how farming method affects the amount of carbon in soil across different kinds of land. He and others at Purdue have been studying soil samples that date back more than 40 years.

He hopes his findings will help farmers make decisions that could result in earnings⁷ from storing carbon and without losing any crop profit.

Carbon markets

But other experts worry that even if farmers do get paid for storing soil carbon, bigger issues remain.

Carbon offsets in the U.S. have to meet four conditions. They have to store carbon that would otherwise be released. The offsets also have to be verifiable in data, immediate⁸ and long-lasting, said John Sterman, a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Carbon storage research might make the offsets more verifiable, but such research does not deal with other problems.

For example, many American farmers do not own the land on which they grow crops. As a result, these farmers cannot guarantee that carbon stored on their land will stay in place if someone else works the same property.

Barbara Haya of the Berkeley Carbon Trading Project at University of California, Berkeley, says the research she has worked on shows that the effects of carbon offset projects are commonly overestimated⁹. Carbon trading has, in her words, "failed miserably¹⁰" over the last 20 years. She advises moving away from the process.

Jared Huffman, a lawmaker in the U.S. House of Representatives, last month proposed a bill to support farmers in making improvements to soil health. He said farmers in the area he represents would be interested in entering carbon markets with strong accounting¹¹ systems. But he added that those hoping for serious climate action should not depend only on offsets.

Words in The Story

commodity – n. something that is bought and sold

signify – v. to be a sign of (something) : to mean (something)

lag– v. to be in a position that is behind others

verify – v. to prove, show, find out, or state that (something) is true or correct

1 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

2 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。

5 offsets   

n.开端( offset的名词复数 )；出发v.抵消( offset的第三人称单数 )；补偿；（为了比较的目的而）把…并列（或并置）；为（管道等）装支管

参考例句：

• The following paragraphs deal with intra-source offsets and the so-called \"bubble\" concept. 下面讨论污染源内部的补偿和所谓的“泡泡”概念。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The preceding paragraphs were concerned with inter-source offsets. 前文牵涉到污染源之间的补偿。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

7 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 overestimated   

对（数量）估计过高，对…作过高的评价( overestimate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They overestimated his ability when they promoted him. 他们提拔他的时候高估了他的能力。
• The Ministry of Finance consistently overestimated its budget deficits. 财政部一贯高估预算赤字。

10 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。