The influence of crediting and permanence periods on Australian forest-based carbon offset supply

Governments globally are developing increasingly ambitious carbon emissions reduction schemes that include significant emissions offset credits for forest-based carbon sequestration. Such strategies can present significant challenges in highly modified and intensively farmed regions where forest land use opportunity and establishment costs are high. This article evaluates the economics of land-use change via active afforestation for local carbon abatement in the Australian state of South Australia, a region with high supply costs representative of long-established temperate farming regions. We found that there is no economically viable abatement below $38 tCO₂e⁻¹, however up to 154 Mt CO₂e of abatement could be available up to prices of $50 tCO₂e⁻¹.Variation in current Australian Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) policy parameters related to permanence and crediting periods were also assessed. Recent ERF contracts involve a 100-year land-use change commitment (permanence period) and a 25-year crediting period where payments for growth in carbon from the land-use change is contracted. We compared outcomes of this arrangement to a scenario with equal 100-year permanence and crediting periods. We found substantial differences in carbon supply at some price points for a 25 rather than a 100-year crediting period. Under ERF parameters the first economically viable revegetation options occur at $42 tCO₂e⁻¹, however, we found a 69 percent reduction in economically viable supply at a carbon price of $50 tCO₂e⁻¹. The results highlight the role offset crediting policy can have on dis-incentivising land-use change and the need for landholders to be compensated fully for temporal opportunity costs.     

An open-access method for targeting revegetation based on potential for emissions reduction,carbon sequestration and opportunity cost

We propose a simple heuristic that uses open-access models and government data on agricultural activities to estimate total carbon emissions from agriculture, the gross carbon benefit and the opportunity cost per tonne CO₂-e from revegetating to environmental plantings or plantation forestry. We test this across ten areas of mixed land-use that represent diverse Australian agricultural systems along a rainfall transect. The local value of agricultural production was obtained from government statistics and used to estimate the current economic opportunity cost of converting cleared agricultural land to mixed environmental plantings for carbon sequestration. Gross carbon benefit from revegetation was closely related to current agricultural use, as was financial opportunity cost. These were not related simply to site productivity potential or rainfall. The proportion of land cleared for agriculture that would need to be re-vegetated to achieve a localised zero-carbon land-use scenario was calculated by the ratio of current agricultural emissions to gross carbon benefit from revegetation; this ranged from 13% to 66% for groups of agricultural industries across Australian rainfall transects. While the heuristic does not capture the detail of models built specifically for local research questions it does provide a different lens on the questions policy makers and land managers may ask about the costs and benefits of revegetating agricultural land, and provides open-access methods to guide them.     

Making two parallel land-use sector debates meet: Carbon leakage and indirect land-use change

Several land-based policy options are discussed within the current quest for feasible climate change mitigation options, among them the creation and conservation of forest carbon sinks through mechanisms such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation also called REDD+ and the substitution of fossil fuels through biofuels, as legislated in the EU Renewable Energy Directive. While those two policy processes face several methodological challenges, there is one issue that both processes encounter: the displacement of land use and the related emissions, which is referred to as carbon leakage in the context of emissions accounting, and indirect land-use change also called ILUC within the bioenergy realm. The debates surrounding carbon leakage and indirect land-use change issues run in parallel but are rather isolated from each other, without much interaction. This paper analyzes the similarities and differences as well as common challenges within these parallel debates by the use of peer-reviewed articles and reports, with a focus on approaches to address and methods to quantify emissions at national and international scale. The aim is to assess the potential to use synergies and learn from the two debates to optimize climate benefits. The results show that the similarities are many, while the differences between carbon leakage and ILUC are found in the actual commodity at stake and to some degree in the policy forum in which the debate is taken. The geographical scale, actors and parties involved also play a role. Both processes operate under the same theoretical assumption and face the same problem of lacking methods to quantify the emissions caused by international displacement. The approach to international displacement is one of the main differences; while US and EU biofuel policymakers acknowledge uncertainties in ILUC accounting but strive to reduce them, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change excludes accounting for international carbon leakage. Potential explanations behind these differences lie in the liability issue and the underlying accounting principles of producer responsibility for carbon leakage and consumer responsibility for ILUC. This is also reflected on the level of lobby activities, where ILUC has reached greater public and policy interest than carbon leakage. Finally, a possible way forward for international leakage accounting in future climate treaties could be the adoption of accounting methods taking a consumer perspective, to be used alongside the existing set-up, which could improve climate integrity of land-based policies.     

中国碳交易价格与电力价格相关性研究

以广东的碳交易市场和电力市场为主要研究对象,考虑到电力市场是产生碳排的因素市场之一,而碳排价格也会对电力成本产生影响,因此利用多种动态模型得出碳交易市场与电力市场两者之间确实有交错影响关系。最后还从发展角度对改善碳排、实现技术改革、发展地方经济提出了建议。     

China's changing diet and its impacts on greenhouse gas emissions: an index decomposition analysis

With increasing awareness of agriculture's contribution to global greenhouse gases (GHGs) and China's position as the world's top GHG emitter, there is heightened attention to the embodied emissions in China's food consumption. China's diet has shifted to include more fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. Not surprisingly, GHG emissions from food consumption have also increased substantially. This analysis links China's food consumption with the emissions of food production industries in China and its trade partners to determine the effects of dietary change on GHGs since 1989. We utilise high‐resolution food production and emissions data to perform a logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition to attribute changes in GHG emissions to the scale, supply structure, demand structure and efficiency effects resulting from Chinese dietary changes over a 20‐year period. This study finds that while countries supplying food to China contribute little to China's food‐related GHGs, demands for meat and dairy play a much larger role, driving up emissions. The overall scale of increased consumption of all food further propels growth in GHG emissions. Results indicate, however, that while food consumption in China more than doubles between 1989 and 2009 improvements in technological efficiency limit the rate of increase.     

基于森林资源保护的碳排放权交易问题的研究

指出天然林保护、退耕还林等林业政策为减缓气候变暖作出了贡献,但是受造林再造林项目规则的限制,这些森林资源的碳汇并不能进行交易,为了使森林恢复、保护与气候变化问题结合起来,同时保证中国的经济安全及森林生态经济系统功能的充分发挥,建议在国内成立一个自愿碳排放权交易市场,并通过交易机制的设计,促进更广义的森林资源进入交易框架。     

中国碳排放权交易市场收益率波动性特征研究

以北京、上海、广东、湖北和重庆碳排放权交易市场为研究对象,运用GARCH族模型研究中国碳排放权交易市场收益率波动性特征。结果表明,5个碳排放权交易市场收益率的波动聚集性、持续性表现不完全一致;北京、上海和重庆存在负向的杠杆效应,广东和湖北不存在杠杆效应;从波动溢出效应关系看,5个碳排放权交易市场间的整体联动性不强;运用方差比率检验法得出,5个碳排放权交易市场均未达到弱势有效市场。这些特征反映出中国碳排放权交易市场的运行机制仍然存在缺陷,建议加强顶层设计,完善碳排放权交易体系。     

Quantifying the impact of farmers' social networks on the effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies in agriculture

To reduce agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, farmers need to change current farming practices. However, farmers' climate change mitigation behaviour and particularly the role of social and individual characteristics remains poorly understood. Using an agent-based modelling approach, we investigate how knowledge exchange within farmers' social networks affects the adoption of mitigation measures and the effectiveness of a payment per ton of GHG emissions abated. Our simulations are based on census, survey and interview data for 49 Swiss dairy and cattle farms to simulate the effect of social networks on overall GHG reduction and marginal abatement costs. We find that considering social networks increases overall reduction of GHG emissions by 45% at a given payment of 120 Swiss Francs (CHF) per ton of reduced GHG emissions. The per ton payment would have to increase by 380 CHF (i.e., 500 CHF/tCO₂eq) to reach the same overall GHG reduction level without any social network effects. Moreover, marginal abatement costs for emissions are lower when farmers exchange relevant knowledge through social networks. The effectiveness of policy incentives aiming at agricultural climate change mitigation can hence be improved by simultaneously supporting knowledge exchange and opportunities of social learning in farming communities.     

Livestock intensification as a climate policy: Lessons from the Brazilian case

Brazil is trying to identify ways to ally economic growth with climate change mitigation. Productivity gains in livestock have been pointed out as a promising alternative to achieve that goal. Thus, this paper analyses the economic impacts of a policy of productivity gains in the Brazilian livestock. Besides, we evaluate if the policy may conciliate agricultural growth and deforestation control, bearing in mind the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from land-use changes. The analysis was carried out through a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, tailored to represent land-use changes, GHG emissions and removals. Besides, it made progress modeling the heterogeneity of climate, soils, and emissions in inter-regional models with many regions. The results show that productivity gains can effectively “save” land and thus avoid deforestation, especially in the Amazon and Cerrado (savannah) biomes. The policy also may boost the economic growth, spreading it to other regions of Brazil, like Centre-West and North, and increasing income and consumption in those places. However, as a climate policy, focused on the reduction of GHG emissions, the results may be counterproductive. The net amount issued may increase, as a result of the positive stimulus of the policy on the economy, and GHG emissions are directly related to the economic growth.     

碳排放权交易的制度构想

温室效应是导致全球气候变暖的重要原因,二氧化碳是温室效应中最重要的温室气体。碳排放权交易是缓解温室效应的一项重要措施,也是当前科学研究热点之一。对国际碳排放市场交易机制、交易类别、成交量价格及国内碳排放交易现状进行了分析。在此基础上,提出建立气候交易所的制度构想。     

The carbon footprints of food crop production

The agriculture sector contributes significantly to global carbon emissions from diverse sources such as product and machinery manufacture, transport of materials and direct and indirect soil greenhouse gas emissions. In this article, we use farm survey data from the east of Scotland combined with published estimates of emissions for individual farm operations to quantify the relative contribution of a range of farming operations and determine the carbon footprint of different crops (e.g. legumes, winter and spring cereals, oilseed rape, potato) and farming practices (conventional, integrated and organic). Over all crops and farm types, 75% of the total emissions result from nitrogen fertilizer use (both organic and inorganic)—from production, application, and direct nitrous oxide emissions from the soil resulting from application. Once nitrogen is accounted for, there are no major differences between organic, integrated or conventional farming practices. These data highlight opportunities for carbon mitigation and will be of value for inclusion in full life cycle analyses of arable production systems and in calculations of greenhouse gas balance associated with land-use change.     

森林碳排放权交易的假设研究

阐述森林进入碳排放权市场的背景,指出并分析森林进行碳排放权交易必须要以4个环节的假设为前提,这4个假设分别是:气候变暖的负效应大于正效应、CO2增加是气候变暖的主要原因、碳捕捉技术的变化具有连续性和森林是可以经营的碳汇。     

Australia's consumption‐based greenhouse gas emissions

We use data from the World Input‐Output Database in a multiregional input–output model to analyse Australian consumption‐based greenhouse gas emissions for the years 1995 to 2009. We find that the emission content of Australian macroeconomic activity has changed over the 15‐year period. Consumption‐based emissions have been growing faster than production‐based emissions since 2001. We show that emissions embodied in Australian imports are increasingly becoming a significant source of emissions. We investigate emissions in Australian imports and find that increased trade with China contributed substantially to the increase in Australia's consumption emissions. China was the largest exporter of emissions to Australia and accounted for almost half of emissions embodied in Australian imports since 2002. The growth of trade with China coincides with the increase in imported emissions as well as the increase in aggregate consumption emissions. Our results suggest that tracking consumption emissions together with production emissions provides a more complete picture of Australian emissions.     

我国排污权交易现状及后续市场建设理念

结合我国社会主义计划经济到市场经济体制历程的特殊性,首先提出排污生产合作社的概念,通过国家倡导生产合作社,提升合作社内部的技术水平,共同扩大排污权获得的规模,提升净化污染物的技术手段。虽然这种合作社由国家倡导,但是必须强调这种合作社应具备竞争性,即可允许企业自由进入这种联盟,政府通过一些排污权交易的优惠政策给予扶持。同时市场需要一个自由的交易平台,相应配套的法律体系和金融体系的建立,更有利于市场上排污权这种资产的使用和流通。     

城市土地利用碳排放系统动力学仿真研究——以武汉市为例

研究目的:从系统角度分析土地、人口、社会、经济、能源对碳排放的影响作用,并对武汉市2017—2030年不同政策情景下的土地利用碳排放进行模拟,为其低碳发展战略和低碳土地利用规划提供决策依据。研究方法:系统动力学方法。研究结果:(1)建立的城市土地利用碳排放系统动力学模型是有效的;(2)按照目前的发展趋势,武汉市的碳排放总量将保持逐年攀升的趋势;(3)经济的快速发展对武汉市土地利用碳排放量的增加具有显著的影响作用;(4)调整土地利用结构、调整产业结构以及提高能源利用效率都能够有效的减少武汉市土地利用碳排放量,其中调整土地利用结构和调整产业结构的作用效果相对来说更加明显。研究结论:转变经济增长方式、升级产业结构、调整土地利用结构和积极研发先进的低碳科学技术是武汉市低碳发展的重要途径。     

Non‐Parametric Modelling of CO2 Emission Quota

Dutch glasshouse firms are facing the introduction of a system of tradable CO₂ emission quotas. This paper employs a non‐parametric method for modelling tradable CO₂ emissions of Dutch glasshouse firms. The method is capable of generating shifts in CO₂ emissions across the sample of firms. Moreover, changes in volumes of outputs produced and inputs used are computed. Results show that firms using a conventional heating technology will be net purchasers of CO₂ emissions, whereas firms using more advanced heating technologies will sell part of their emission quota.     

A causal analysis framework for land-use change and the potential role of bioenergy policy

We propose a causal analysis framework to increase understanding of land-use change (LUC) and the reliability of LUC models. This health-sciences-inspired framework can be applied to determine probable causes of LUC in the context of bioenergy. Calculations of net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for LUC associated with biofuel production are critical in determining whether a fuel qualifies as a biofuel or advanced biofuel category under regional (EU), national (US, UK), and state (California) regulations. Biofuel policymakers and scientists continue to discuss to what extent presumed indirect land-use change (ILUC) estimates should be included in GHG accounting for biofuel pathways. Current estimates of ILUC for bioenergy rely largely on economic simulation models that focus on causal pathways involving global commodity trade and use coarse land-cover data with simple land classification systems. This paper challenges the application of such models to estimate global areas of LUC in the absence of causal analysis. The proposed causal analysis framework begins with a definition of the change that has occurred and proceeds to a strength-of-evidence approach that includes plausibility of relationship, completeness of causal pathway, spatial co-occurrence, time order, analogous agents, simulation model results, and quantitative agent–response relationships. We discuss how LUC may be allocated among probable causes for policy purposes and how the application of the framework has the potential to increase the validity of LUC models and resolve controversies about ILUC, such as deforestation, and biofuels.     

山东省碳排放时空格局及其与经济增长相关性分析

基于《山东省统计年鉴》,核算2000~2010年间山东省及17个省辖市能源消费、农田系统碳排放量、森林草地碳汇量。选取人均碳排放量、碳排放强度等指标,利用基尼系数,结合GIS空间分析法分析山东碳排放的时空规律,并利用库兹涅茨曲线分析经济增长对碳排放格局的影响。研究表明：山东省碳排放量随时间变化呈较为明显的上升趋势,其中能源排放比重较大,区域之间存在明显的差异,呈现出中间高边缘低的分布特征;人均GDP与碳排放强度之间存在线性相关关系,呈倒U型曲线。     

Modelling the transportation of primary aggregates in England and Wales: Exploring initiatives to reduce CO2 emissions

Millions of tonnes of aggregates are transported across England and Wales each year, which causes constant concerns in regard to CO₂ emissions. Much of that concern arises out of the long journeys from quarries to construction sites, and the fact that the main mode of transfer is by road. The aim of this paper is to describe the construction of a spatial decision support system (SDSS) to examine the impacts of scenarios to reduce the level of CO₂ emissions. The SDSS is made up of a GIS containing a set of spatial models (including a spatial interaction model and a microsimulation model) underpinned by a detailed transport network of road and rail routes across England and Wales. The spatial interaction models are first calibrated to reproduce the existing set of flows of aggregates between quarries and local authority districts. The distance decay component is the travel distance equivalent across the road and rail networks. Based on these flows, linear models can be set up to estimate the amount of CO₂ emissions associated with the existing set of flows. Then a series of what-if scenarios are set up which look at how changes in any part of the geography of production, the level of demand in certain areas or the transport process will impact the CO₂ emissions. The paper demonstrates the capability of the SDSS in responding to the various spatial policies applied in different stages of the supply chain of the aggregates markets.     

Traffic-restriction in Ramallah (Palestine): Participatory sustainability assessment of pedestrian scenarios using a simplified transport model

Assigning specific infrastructure per transport mode addresses discrepancies between mobility and land-use developments. This paper elaborates on pedestrian scenarios for central Ramallah, a major urban developing area in Palestine. The sustainability of the four alternative pedestrian scenarios is assessed according to the participatory multi-actor multi-criteria analysis, which integrates stakeholder objectives in the evaluation of the alternative scenarios. To determine the impact of each pedestrian scenario on the traffic flow, an origin–destination matrix is estimated by means of traffic counts, according the Furness distribution algorithm and the maximising-entropy approach. Results forward the medium Al-Zhara scenario as compromising alternative between the objectives of the governmental, transport operator and local business stakeholder groups, as it instigates less congestion, pollutant gas and greenhouse gas emissions. Detour routes subjected to parking constraints are proposed to optimise the reduced traffic flow.