The endless expansion of carbon offsetting: sequestration by agricultural soils in historical perspective

Nathalie Berta () and Alain Roux
Additional contact information
Nathalie Berta: LADYSS - Laboratoire Dynamiques Sociales et Recomposition des Espaces - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - UP8 - Université Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis - UPN - Université Paris Nanterre - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPCité - Université Paris Cité, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Alain Roux: CRIEG - Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Economie Gestion - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, REGARDS - Recherches en Economie Gestion Agroressources Durabilité et Santé - CRIEG - Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Economie Gestion - MSH-URCA - Maison des Sciences Humaines de Champagne-Ardenne - URCA - Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Abstract The growing popularity of the idea of carbon budgets has contributed to a reshaping of climate policy goals in terms of carbon neutrality (net zero emissions) instead of strict emissions reductions. As a consequence, new legitimacy has been given to debatable efforts to use negative emissions for offsetting purposes. In this respect, sequestration by agricultural soils is now presented as a promising way to offset fossil carbon emissions. Adopting a historical perspective, this article studies the way soil sciences and economics amplified the political promise of agricultural sequestration, despite enduring concerns about its non-permanence and reversibility. First, it shows how, from the 1980s, the soil sciences conveyed a mechanical representation of soil as a carbon sink, and on this basis worked to assess its sequestration potential. Second, it shows how agricultural economics helped to translate this physical potential into economic opportunity, extolling its low cost relative to decarbonisation options. Both tendencies contributed to the institutionalisation of a new equivalence between the reduction of CO2 emissions and organic carbon sequestration through the enlargement of the international system of carbon accounting, and both encouraged the development of soil-based offsets, at the cost of environmental integrity.

Keywords: Carbon market; Carbon offsets; History of environmental economics; Ecological economics; Carbon storage in soils; Climate change Classification JEL Q 24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-02-28
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Cambridge Journal of Economics, 2024, ⟨10.1093/cje/beae008⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:journl:hal-04504500

DOI: 10.1093/cje/beae008

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().