The Low Carbon Label to offset emissions in French forests
In Périgord, Jérome Chanel of the Alliance forestry union is convinced of the services that forests can provide to people: "Forests are extraordinary factories that transform carbon dioxide into wood."
Here, he manages somewhat special reforestation, financed by companies and communities.
Thanks to the Low Carbon Label, which provides a framework for these practices in France, companies can offset their emissions by subsidizing French forests.
"We first studied the quality of the soil according to the climate found in this territory, and we chose a certain number of species", explains Jérôme.
The plot he takes care of that day is 8 hectares and will offset around 1,300 tonnes of CO2 emitted,
Carbon offsetting, the tree that hides the forest?
Are trees therefore the miracle solution to our climate problem?
First terrestrial carbon sink, in France, they sequester 20% of our emissions.
A good start perhaps, but not enough.
Currently, we are releasing so many greenhouse gases that vegetation simply cannot keep up.
If the planet were entirely covered in trees, the forests would absorb only 40 to 100 gigatonnes of CO2, whereas we emit 10 gigatonnes in a single year!
Compensating does not mean reducing
For some environmental NGOs, carbon offsetting is simply
greenwashing
.
Myrtho Tilianaki, Advocacy Officer at CCFD-Terre Solidaire, studied the carbon neutrality strategies of three large companies: Nespresso, Total Energies and Air France.
And it is clear that they have hardly implemented any significant emission reduction measures.
They are betting everything on offsetting and therefore carbon offsetting becomes a real lever for climate inaction.
More than ineffective, carbon offsetting, especially when done on the other side of the world, can also be dangerous.
"We have had cases in the past of carbon offset projects which have led to intimidation, evictions, land grabbing phenomena", specifies Myrtho Tilianaki.
With Cœur de Forêt, quality rather than quantity
For Antony Cheval of the Cœur de Forêt association, the best thing to do for the planet is to maintain the forests.
The objective of the action on French territory is to support owners in understanding their forest plot and provide them with all the elements of knowledge so that they can manage their forests sustainably.
Thinking about the best species adapted to the territories, choosing a variety of species: so many techniques that make it possible to maintain a forest so that it resists the droughts and diseases that are increasing with climate change.
Antony Cheval is convinced of this: it is diversity that will really save us and that will save the forests in the face of global warming.
The soil, the hidden half of the ecosystem
Trees do have a role to play in reducing CO2 on our planet, but INRAE scientists are also interested in their little brother: the soil.
Laurent Augusto, who is leading a research project in the experimental forest of Cestas in Gironde, affirms it: there is as much CO2 captured in the trees as in the soil that supports them.
The process is simple, as the trees grow, they will drop dead leaves.
These contain carbon which will feed the soil.
The CO2 is then trapped there.
The objective for Laurent and his team is to understand which species facilitate the storage of carbon in the soil.
“We already have interesting preliminary results,” he explains.
"Softwoods, such as fir, spruce or pine, store a little more carbon in the soil than hardwoods. On the hardwood side, it's carbon that will stay in the soil longer, so it's interesting too."
Laurent is convinced: if this research could make it possible to store a large part of the carbon generated by Man in the soil, we must change our lifestyles to reduce our emissions.
"The CO2 that is not emitted will not need to be trapped," he concludes.
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