Land-based mitigation in climate stabilization

Steven K. Rose, Helal Ahammad, Bas Eickhout, Brian Fisher, Atsushi Kurosawa, Shilpa Rao, Keywan Riahi and Detlef P. van Vuuren

Energy Economics, 2012, vol. 34, issue 1, 365-380

Abstract: This paper evaluates the role of land in long-run climate stabilization mitigation scenarios. The details of land modeling for common stabilization policy scenarios are, for the first time, presented, contrasted, and assessed. While we find significant differences in approaches across modeling platforms, all the approaches conclude that land based mitigation – agriculture, forestry, and biomass liquid and solid energy substitutes – could be a steady and significant part of the cost-effective portfolio of mitigation strategies; thereby, reducing stabilization cost and increasing flexibility for achieving more aggressive climate targets. However, large fossil fuel emissions reductions are still required, and there are substantial uncertainties, with little agreement about abatement magnitudes. Across the scenarios, land mitigation options contribute approximately 100 to 340GtC equivalent abatement over the century, 15 to 40% of the total required for stabilization, with bio-energy providing up to 15% of total primary energy. Long-run land climate modeling is rapidly evolving with critical challenges to address. In characterizing current capability, this paper hopes to stimulate future research and the next generation of land modeling and provide a point of comparison for energy and climate policies considering bio-energy, reduced deforestation and degradation, and cost containment.

Keywords: Climate change; Land use; Forestry; Agriculture; Bioenergy; Land economics; Greenhouse gas mitigation; Terrestrial sequestration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q19 Q23 Q24 Q42 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (31)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988311001265
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:34:y:2012:i:1:p:365-380

DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2011.06.004

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Economics is currently edited by R. S. J. Tol, Beng Ang, Lance Bachmeier, Perry Sadorsky, Ugur Soytas and J. P. Weyant

More articles in Energy Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().