Damned if you do, Damned if you don't – Reduced Climate Impact vs. Sustainable Forests in Sweden

Erik Geijer (), Göran Bostedt () and Runar Brännlund ()
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Erik Geijer: Dept of Forest Economics, Postal: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-901 83 Umeå, Sweden
Göran Bostedt: Dept of Forest Economics, Postal: Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, S-901 83 Umeå, Sweden
Runar Brännlund: Department of Economics, Umeå University, Postal: S 901 87 Umeå, Sweden

No 794, Umeå Economic Studies from Umeå University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to analyze the potential goal conflict between two of Sweden’s environmental objectives: Sustainable Forests and Reduced Climate Impact – or, more precisely, the conflict between forest conservation and the supply of wood fuel. To accomplish this, we use a forest sector model that includes the suppliers and major users of roundwood. The econometric results, based on a data set that spans 40 years, show that all the own price elasticities have the expected signs. Among the three forestry products, the supply and (long-term) demand of forest fuel seems to be most sensitive to a price change. In a second step, the estimated model is used to simulate the effect of increased forest conservation -- the Sustainable Forest objective -- on the supply of wood fuel. If oil is used as a substitute, Swedish emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by almost 0.92 percent, which indicates a clear conflict with the Reduced Climate Impact objective.

Keywords: Goal conflict; Wood fuels; Forest sector model; Roundwood markets; Forest conservation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C30 L73 Q41 Q48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2009-11-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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