E. Rametsteiner

Global cost estimates of reducing carbon emissions through avoided deforestation

Tropical deforestation is estimated to cause about one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, and other environmental services. United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change talks are now considering mechanisms for avoiding deforestation (AD), but the economic potential of AD has yet to be addressed. We use three economic models of global land use and management to analyze the potential contribution of AD activities to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. AD activities are found to be a competitive, low-cost abatement option. A program providing a 10% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 0.3–0.6 Gt (1 Gt = 1 × 105 g) CO2·yr−1 in emission reductions and would require

Predicting the deforestation-trend under different carbon-prices

0.4 billion to

Governance Concepts and their Application in Forest Policy Initiatives from Global to Local Levels

1.7 billion·yr−1 for 30 years. A 50% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 1.5–2.7 Gt CO2·yr−1 in emission reductions and would require

Indicator development in sustainability impact assessment: balancing theory and practice

17.2 billion to

Indicator development as 'boundary spanning' between scientists and policy-makers

28.0 billion·yr−1. Finally, some caveats to the analysis that could increase costs of AD programs are described.

Capping the Cost of Compliance with the Kyoto Protocol and Recycling Revenues into Land-Use Projects

BackgroundGlobal carbon stocks in forest biomass are decreasing by 1.1 Gt of carbon annually, owing to continued deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation emissions are partly offset by forest expansion and increases in growing stock primarily in the extra-tropical north. Innovative financial mechanisms would be required to help reducing deforestation. Using a spatially explicit integrated biophysical and socio-economic land use model we estimated the impact of carbon price incentive schemes and payment modalities on deforestation. One payment modality is adding costs for carbon emission, the other is to pay incentives for keeping the forest carbon stock intact.ResultsBaseline scenario calculations show that close to 200 mil ha or around 5% of todays forest area will be lost between 2006 and 2025, resulting in a release of additional 17.5 GtC. Todays forest cover will shrink by around 500 million hectares, which is 1/8 of the current forest cover, within the next 100 years. The accumulated carbon release during the next 100 years amounts to 45 GtC, which is 15% of the total carbon stored in forests today. Incentives of 6 US

The State of Europe’s Forests: 2007 – Report of the Fifth Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe for Sustainable Forest Management in Europe

/tC for vulnerable standing biomass payed every 5 year will bring deforestation down by 50%. This will cause costs of 34 billion US

Towards a Sound REDD: Ensuring Globally Consistent Reference

/year. On the other hand a carbon tax of 12

Sustainability indicator development-Science or political negotiation?

/tC harvested forest biomass will also cut deforestation by half. The tax income will, if enforced, decrease from 6 billion US

Multi Criteria Analysis for bioenergy systems assessments

in 2005 to 4.3 billion US