Costs of Creating Carbon Offset Credits via Forestry Activities: A Meta-Regression Analysis

Gerrit van Kooten, Susanna Laaksonen-Craig and Yichuan Wang

No 2007-03, Working Papers from University of Victoria, Department of Economics, Resource Economics and Policy Analysis Research Group

Abstract: The main focus of efforts to mitigate climate change is on the avoidance of fossil fuel emissions. However, the Kyoto rules permit the use of forestry activities that create carbon offset credits. These could obviate the need for lifestyle-changing reductions in fossil fuel use. It is necessary for policy purposes, therefore, to determine the cost effectiveness of creating forest sink carbon credits. In this study, meta-regression analyses with 1047 observations from 68 studies are used to determine factors that affect carbon sequestration costs. Results indicate that soil carbon is not very important, but that forest plantations and use of biomass for energy make forestry activities more attractive. It also turns out that forestry activities are competitive with emissions reduction in tropical regions and, perhaps, boreal regions, but certainly not in Europe. Finally, the regression estimates are used to project the potential costs of carbon uptake for various forest management scenarios.

Keywords: climate mitigation; forest carbon offset credits; meta-regression analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q23 Q27 Q54 R15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2007-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Working Paper: Costs of Creating Carbon Offset Credits via Forestry Activities: A Meta-Regression Analysis (2007)
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