Rewarding carbon sequestration in South-Western French forests: A costly operation?

Guillaume Pajot

Journal of Forest Economics, 2011, vol. 17, issue 4, 363-377

Abstract: The extension of rotation lengths in forests has been proposed as an option for increasing carbon storage and contributing to climate change mitigation. This paper presents the results of a case study conducted on forests located in the southwest of France. The aim of this research was to assess the cost effectiveness of a subsidy/tax system on carbon fluxes. First, it is shown that such a mechanism leads forest owners to extend rotation lengths. However, cost effectiveness analysis shows that: (1) marginal social costs are more expensive than the private marginal costs of carbon sequestration; (2) marginal costs are higher when carbon stocks are discounted, ranging from 170.1€/tC to 719.8€/tC with discounted carbon stocks; and from 38.8€/tC to 78.4€/tC with undiscounted carbon stocks; (3) marginal costs are in the range of measures of the social value of carbon for France; (4) marginal costs increase with timber prices and increase with discount rate.

Keywords: Carbon sequestration; Forests; Cost effectiveness; Incentives; Rotation lengths; Carbon stocks; Marginal costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 C63 Q23 Q54 Q56 Q57 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:foreco:v:17:y:2011:i:4:p:363-377

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jfe.2010.12.002

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