The Dynamic Competitiveness of U.S. Agricultural and Forest Carbon Sequestration

Abstract

"Society is increasingly turning attention toward greenhouse gas emission control with for example the Kyoto Protocol has entered into force. Since many of the emissions come from energy use, high cost strategies might be required until new technological developments reduce fossil fuel dependency or increase energy utilization efficiency. On the other hand biologically based strategies may be used to offset energy related emissions. Agricultural soil and forestry are among the largest carbon reservoirs on the planet; therefore, agricultural and forest activities may help to reduce the costs of greenhouse gas emission mitigation. However, sequestration exhibits permanence related characteristics that may influence this role. We examine the dynamic role of carbon sequestration in the agricultural and forest sectors can play in mitigation. A 100-year mathematical programming model, depicting U.S. agricultural and forest sectoral activities including land transfers and greenhouse gas consequences is applied to simulate potential mitigation response. The results show that at low cost and in the near term agricultural soil and forest management are dominant sectoral responses. At higher prices and in the longer term biofuels and afforestation take over. Our results reveal that the agricultural and forest sector carbon sequestration may serve as an important bridge to the future helping to hold costs down until energy emissions related technology develops." Copyright 2005 Canadian Agricultural Economics Society.

Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture

“…The portfolio of mitigation strategies also varies over time owing to (i) the limited ecological capacity of the sequestration related strategies (i.e. their approach to a new carbon equilibrium over time) and (ii) the limited market penetration potential of capital intensive strategies like biofuels (which are constrained by the rate of turnover in energy processing plants, prospects and costs of retrofits, and energy product growth; Lee et al 2005). It is important to note that while the most prevalent costmitigation quantity schedules are for single strategies (i.e.…”

The effects of prescribed fire and silvicultural thinning on the aboveground carbon stocks and net primary production of overstory trees in an oak-hickory ecosystem in southern Ohio

“…Concern about the accumulation of atmospheric CO 2 , and its potential role in global climate change, has led to the recognition that forests are exceedingly important as a global CO 2 sink (Lee et al, 2005). Furthermore, the Kyoto protocol (UNFCCC, 1998), which came into force on 16 February 2005, imposed emission ceilings on greenhouse gases for developed countries and adopted a cap-andtrade system that allows the trading of CO 2 equivalent emission credits (for Annex I countries, UNFCCC, 1998).…”

Deforestation and the Environmental Kuznets Curve in Developing Countries: A Panel Smooth Transition Regression Approach

“…Several empirical studies explore the impact of real income on deforestation, but generate mixed results. Findings like 1 Lee et al (2005) indicate that the agricultural and forest sectors provide the possibility to mitigate about 3-15% of the projected greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, or about 8,000-10,200 millions of metric tons of CO 2 . In contrast, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for deforestation is confirmed in existing studies, such as Cropper and Griffith (1994), Antle and Heidebrink (1995), Koop andTole (1999), andEhrhardt-Martinez et al (2002).…”