Sains Malaysiana 48(10)(2019): 2083–2092

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2019-4810-03

Development of Prototype Project for Carbon Storage and Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction from Thailand's Agricultural Sector

(Pembangunan Projek Prototip untuk Penyimpanan Karbon dan Pengurangan Pelepasan Gas Rumah Hijau daripada Sektor Pertanian di Thailand)

YANNAWUT UTTARUK & TEERAWONG LAOSUWAN*

Faculty of Science, Mahasarakham University, Khamriang Sub-District, Kantarawichai District, Maha Sarakham, 44150, Thailand

Received: 18 May 2019/Accepted: 9 September 2019

ABSTRACT

At present, the world is facing many crises. One of the major crises is the climate change problem or the greenhouse effect caused by carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere. This is ranked as the main cause of global warming. The purpose of this research was to develop a prototype project for carbon storage and GHG emissions reduction from the agricultural sector according to T-VER methods developed for Thailand. The research methods were to calculate the carbon storage of trees and the GHG emissions reduction according to the T-VER-METH-AGR-02. The results of the project implementation can summarize the amount of GHG in the whole study area of 115,520 m² as follows; The carbon storage from the yearly project implementation was at 69.54 tCO₂e/y and the carbon storage within 7 years of the project implementation was at 486.78 tCO₂e. The GHG emissions reduction from the yearly project implementation was at 0.307 tCO₂e/y and the GHG emissions reduction within 7 years of the project implementation was at 2.149 tCO₂e. The calculation of the amount of carbon storage and GHG emissions from the activities during the project lifetime was found at 488.93 tCO₂e. In addition, orchard owners can use this research-based approach to calculate the carbon storage of trees and the GHG emissions reduction in their orchards and to prepare for the carbon offset process from voluntary sector under the T-VER.

Keywords: Agriculture sector; carbon storage; GHG emissions reduction; T-VER

ABSTRAK

Pada masa ini, dunia sedang menghadapi banyak krisis. Salah satu krisis utama adalah masalah perubahan iklim atau kesan rumah hijau yang disebabkan oleh karbon dioksida yang dilepaskan ke atmosfera. Ia merupakan penyebab utama pemanasan global. Tujuan penyelidikan ini diadakan adalah untuk membangunkan satu projek prototip bagi penyimpanan karbon serta pengurangan pelepasan GHG daripada sektor pertanian mengikut metod T-VER yang dibangunkan untuk Thailand. Kaedah penyelidikan ini adalah untuk menghitung penyimpanan karbon oleh pokok dan pengurangan pelepasan GHG mengikut T-VER-METH-AGR-02. Keputusan daripada pelaksanaan projek ini boleh merumuskan jumlah GHG dalam keseluruhan kawasan kajian iaitu 115,520 m² seperti berikut; penyimpanan karbon daripada pelaksanaan projek tahunan ialah pada 69.54 tCO₂e/y dan penyimpanan karbon dalam tempoh 7 tahun dari pelaksanaan projek ialah pada 486.78 tCO₂e, pengurangan pengeluaran GHG daripada pelaksanaan projek tahunan ialah pada 0.307 tCO₂e/y dan pengurangan pengeluaran GHG dalam tempoh 7 tahun pelaksanaan projek adalah pada 2.149 tCO₂e. Pengiraan jumlah penyimpanan karbon dan pengeluaran GHG daripada aktiviti sepanjang tempoh projek ialah pada 488.93 tCO₂e. Di samping itu, para pemilik kebun boleh menggunakan pendekatan berasaskan penyelidikan ini untuk menghitung penyimpanan karbon oleh pokok dan pengurangan pengeluaran GHG di dalam kebun mereka serta menyediakan proses ofset karbon daripada sektor sukarela di bawah T-VER.

Kata kunci: Pengurangan pengeluaran GHG; penyimpanan karbon; sektor pertanian; T-VER

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*Corresponding author; email: teerawong@msu.ac.th