The ‘hidden’ social costs of forestry offsets

The article quantifies the size of ‘hidden’ social costs that are incurred by forestry offsets in the voluntary market that promise to offset present emissions sometime in the future. It does this by estimating the difference between the social costs of carbon (C) emitted and of costs offset by removal of C from the atmosphere by reforestation/afforestation. All current attempts to make forestry offsets more reliable focus on quality control rather than the mismatch of the timing of emissions and their offset. Recommendations that follow from the analysis are twofold. First, that markets for carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) removals by voluntary offsets should be confined to the annual incremental removals actually achieved. Second, the promoters of voluntary offsets projects should declare the annual stream of carbon credits and debits expected so that buyers can place a present value on such projects.     

美国加州南海岸区域清洁空气激励市场项目概况及进展

目前中国一些地区正在试点探索实施区域性排污交易项目。美国是世界上最早将排污交易理论付诸实践的国家,作为该国最早的区域性大气污染物排污交易计划之一,加州"区域清洁空气激励市场"项目自1994年开始运行。这一排污交易项目不仅实现了氮氧化物与硫氧化物减排目标,而且形成了相对健全的排污交易规则。"区域清洁空气激励市场"的总量控制机制、初始分配和交易规则与排污交易市场运行经验,对中国地方性排污交易项目设计具有重要的借鉴意义。     

我国碳排放权交易价格影响因素回归分析

2017年年底我国正式启动统一碳排放权交易市场,碳市场为我国实行二氧化碳减排提供了有效手段。由于碳市场起步晚,市场交易机制、法规制度等方面亟待完善。本文在探究碳排放权交易机制和碳价格形成过程的基础上,尝试将技术进步作为解释变量之一进行分析。实证研究选取2014年7月—2018年12月五个活跃度高的碳试点日交易价格数据,采用多元回归模型分析六个影响因素与我国碳排放权交易价格的相关性。实证结果表明,金融市场、能源价格、空气质量、国际碳市场、技术进步均与碳排放权交易价格存在显著的相关关系,其中技术进步因素具有较强的影响力,与碳排放交易价格呈显著的负相关关系。碳排放权交易价格影响因素的确定可为我国健全和完善统一碳排放权交易市场提供决策参考。     

上海市规模以上工业企业CO2排放量测算与分析研究

2012年上海市成为首批开展碳排放权交易试点城市,各企业可根据年CO2排放量决定其所获得的碳排放交易权。参考政府间气候变化专门委员会（2006）提出的碳排放计算方法建立数学模型,通过对上海市14家规模以上工业企业2001年-2010年C02排放量的测算和分析,显示有5家企业排放量超过100027t,4家企业排放量在10万t～120万t,5家企业位于0～25万t。测算结果为企业获得碳排放权提供一定的参考依据。     

Estimating carbon supply curves from afforestation of agricultural land in the Northeastern U.S.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative for the northeastern states of the U.S. allows for terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration offsets generated by afforestation activities only. This paper estimates the maximum potential quantity and associated costs of increasing the storage of carbon by afforestation of existing agricultural land in the 11 states of the Northeast United States. The focus of the work was to describe location, the quantity, and at what cost it would be economically attractive to shift agricultural production to afforestation to increase carbon storage in the region. Widely available data sets were used to (1) identify spatially-explicit areas for lower costs carbon offsets and (2) estimate carbon supply curves related to afforestation of agricultural land over three time periods (10, 20, and 40 years). Carbon accumulation and total carbon offset project costs were estimated at a county scale and combined to identify expected costs per ton of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). Large variation in estimated costs per ton of CO₂e are driven by varying carbon accumulation potentials and opportunity costs of taking land out of agricultural production, as well as the duration of the project activity. Results show that the lowest cost carbon offset projects will be in certain counties of Maine, Vermont, and New York. Pasture land, with lower opportunity costs, generally presents the opportunity for lower cost carbon offset projects relative to cropland. This analysis estimates that afforestation of pasture land in the northeast will not become economically attractive until the price rises above 10 per metric tonne (MT) CO < sub > 2 < /sub > e and that up to 583 million MT could be economically sequestered if the price were to rise to10 per metric tonne (MT) CO₂e and that up to 583 million MT could be economically sequestered if the price were to rise to 50 per MT CO₂e, based on a 40-year project life. With regard to cropland in the northeast, afforestation does not become economically advantageous for land owners until the price rises above $40 per MT CO₂e. It is estimated that up to 487,000 MT could be sequestered from cropland if the price were to rise to $40 per MT CO₂e. It is estimated that up to 487,000 MT could be sequestered from cropland if the price were to rise to 50 per MT CO₂e, based on a 40-year project life.     

Managing dependencies in forest offset projects: toward a more complete evaluation of reversal risk

Although forest carbon offsets can play an important role in the implementation of comprehensive climate policy, they also face an inherent risk of reversal. If such risks are positively correlated across projects, it can affect the integrity of larger project portfolios and potentially the entire offsets program. Here, we discuss three types of risks that could affect forest offsets—fat tails, micro-correlation, and tail dependence—and provide examples of how they could present themselves in a forest offset context. Given these potential dependencies, we suggest several new risk management approaches that take into account dependencies in reversal risk across projects and which could help guard the climate integrity of an offsets program. We also argue that data collection be included as an integral part of any offsets program so that disturbance-related dependencies may be identified and managed as early and to the greatest extent possible.     

Foresty offsets in emissions trading systems: a link between systems?

An important aspect in the linking of different emissions trading schemes is the degree to which these systems allow (or ban) external offset project categories. The EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) currently allows the use of credits from energy and industry projects developed under the Kyoto Protocol’s Joint Implementation (JI) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) but excludes the use of carbon credits from forestry projects for compliance in the EU ETS. Forestry credits generated by the CDM have a limited lifetime and expire at the end of a project’s crediting period, or earlier if the carbon stock for which the credits have been issued ceases to exist. According to the recently adopted amendment of the EU ETS Directive forestry credits will remain to be excluded until 2020. The present article reviews how the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (Australia), the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (US) and the voluntary scheme of the Chicago Climate Exchange integrate forestry offsets into the respective system and how they deal with the risk of losing stored and credited biomass. By comparing the results of different scenarios this article shows how differences in the treatment of forestry offsets could impact the efforts to link various emission trading systems in future.

不同情境下中国碳排放权交易市场的风险度量

以深圳、湖北、广东、上海及北京5个碳交易中心2015～2020年的日交易数据为基础,设置了Ave、Med、Max、Min4种交易情境,采用TGARCH-VaR模型对不同情境下的碳排放权交易市场风险进行了研究.结果表明,不同情境下碳排放交易市场风险存在差异,各情境的市场稳定性、政策响应度均存在一定规律:Ave情境碳现货收...     

Exploring the assumed invariance of implied emission factors for forest biomass in greenhouse gas inventories

Reviews of each nation's annual greenhouse gas inventory submissions including forestland are part of the ongoing reporting process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Goals of these reviews include improving quality and consistency within and among reports. One method of facilitating comparisons is the use of a standard index such as an implied emission factor (IEF), which for forest biomass indicates net rate of carbon emission or sequestration per area. Guidance on the use of IEFs in reviews is limited, but there is an expectation that values should be relatively constant both over time and across spatial scales. To address this hypothesis, we examine IEFs over time, derived from U.S. forests at plot-, state-, and national-levels. Results show that at increasingly aggregated levels, relative heterogeneity decreases but can still be substantial. A net increase in U.S. whole-forest IEFs over time is consistent with results from temperate forests of nations in the European Community. IEFs are better viewed as a distribution of values rather than one constant value principally because of sensitivities to productivity, disturbance, and land use change, which can all vary considerably across a nation's forest land.     

碳交易市场体系中的碳排放基准线:应用实践、研究进展与展望

碳交易作为一种碳减排的市场化手段和政策工具,在推动绿色低碳可持续发展中发挥着重要作用. 碳排放基准线是碳交易市场体系的重要组成部分,其对标行业先进碳排放水平,是碳交易机制中使用基准线法计算碳配额的主要依据. 我国已发布了全国发电行业的碳排放基准线,随着碳交易市场的稳步推进和发展,对于其他行业碳排放基准线的研究和制定需求愈发迫切. 本文以水泥行业为例,概述了碳排放基准线的制定方法,梳理了国内外碳排放基准线的应用实践及研究进展. 总体上,当前我国碳排放基准线工作滞后于欧美地区,面临覆盖行业少、行业内部标准不一、数据基础薄弱、区域及企业间差异未充分考虑等问题,难以保证碳配额分配的科学性和公平性. 未来,建议以发电行业为突破口,尽快统一各行业内部基准线制定方案,优先考虑高碳行业;构建适用于我国碳市场的产品分类体系,完善不同主体的碳核算技术标准,明确不同产品的碳核算边界;加强对企业活动数据的监管力度,严格碳配额核算、分配过程,保证碳额分配的透明、公平;围绕地区或企业间的差异量化与配额修正等关键问题开展深入研究,提高基准线适用水平.      

我国碳交易试点政策的减排效应及地区差异

基于连续性双重差分等方法,评估2004～2017年我国碳交易试点政策的减排效应及地区差异,并分析其作用机制.结果显示,碳交易政策能使试点地区的碳排放强度下降9.5％,碳市场规模?活跃度每增加1％,将分别带来试点地区碳排放强度下降0.9％和0.7％.异质性影响上,碳交易政策对东中部地区的减排效应明显,对西部地区无明显作用...     

一种排污权初始分配结构设计框架

作为一种新型环境政策,排污权交易在美国已经成功地演进为总量控制型排污权交易,这被认为是最接近市场经济的环境管理手段。在国内,排污权交易也日益受到政府的重视。自1988年以来,中国的许多地方都先后试点了排污权交易,但多停留在补偿政策,很少有关于总量控制型排污权交易的尝试。在政策设计的技术层面,造成这种状况的一个主要原因是缺乏有效的排污权初始分配结构设计框架。为此,在区域清洁激励市场计划排污权初始分配结构的基础上,针对渐进式减排战略指导下的总量控制型排污权交易计划,分纵向结构设计和横向结构设计两部分,提出了一种具有通用性的排污权初始分配结构设计框架。这有助于合理进行排污权初始分配。     

中国碳排放权交易市场发展历程 ——从试点到全国

碳排放权交易作为控制温室气体排放的一种市场化手段,相对于行政手段具有全社会减排成本较低、能够为企业减排提供灵活选择等优势。2011年以来,我国在北京、天津、上海、重庆、湖北、广东、深圳7个地方开展了碳排放权交易试点工作,为全国碳市场建设积累了宝贵经验。2017年年底,以发电行业为突破口的全国碳市场启动。2018年4月,国务院碳交易主管部门由国家发展和改革委转隶至生态环境部,生态环境部从推动碳交易立法、建立健全制度体系、加快基础设施建设、强化基础能力建设等方面稳步推进全国碳市场建设。本文梳理了我国碳市场的发展历程,并对全国碳市场的进一步完善提出建议。     

法律着力碳交易：机制与对策

碳交易兼具节能减排政策市场化手段和低碳转型政策工具的双重职能。顺应节能减排领域对碳交易市场化的法律需求,发挥法律在碳交易市场创建、交易规则形成、市场规模扩张、交易平台构建、交易形式创新等方面的制度优势,是法律着力碳交易的核心问题。探讨法律在碳交易市场化进程中的作用机制和对策,建立碳交易法律促进的市场创造与扩张机制、程序保障机制、技术支持机制、物质保障机制、碳权保护机制,是当前气候变化立法重大课题。     

A novel framework for analysis of cross-media environmental effects from agricultural conservation practices

Agricultural ecosystems are a source of greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions and losses of nutrients to waterways. Several studies have recognized this and have documented the potential to reduce GHG fluxes and nutrient loss to waterways by using carbon offsets to fund the implementation of land retirement and afforestation. However, the ability to use land for both agricultural production and environmental conservation is also important. This study develops a novel analytical framework that is used to examine the cross-media (water and air) environmental effects of implementing offset-funded conservation practices in a working-lands setting. The framework is applied to a case study which examines the extent to which carbon pricing can affect practice implementation costs and the optimal distribution of these practices throughout an agricultural watershed. Results indicate that carbon offsets can reduce conservation practice implementation costs and have the potential to reduce greater amounts of nonpoint source pollution for a given cost of implementation. This conclusion has significant implications for policymaking, particularly with regard to using markets for GHG emissions to achieve water quality improvements where water quality trading or government conservation programs have historically been unsuccessful.     

A virtual “field test” of forest management carbon offset protocols: the influence of accounting

Of the greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation options available from U.S. forests and agricultural lands, forest management presents amongst the lowest cost and highest volume opportunities. A number of carbon (C) accounting schemes or protocols have recently emerged to track the mitigation achieved by individual forest management projects. Using 50-year C cycling data from the Calhoun Experimental Forest in South Carolina, USA, C storage is estimated for a hypothetical forest management C offset project operating under seven of these protocols. After 100 years of project implementation, net C sequestration among the seven protocols varies by nearly a full order of magnitude. This variation stems from differences in how individual C pools, baseline, leakage, certainty, and buffers are addressed under each protocol. This in turn translates to a wide variation in the C price required to match the net present value of the non-project, business-as-usual alternative. Collectively, these findings suggest that protocol-specific restrictions or requirements are likely to discount the amount of C that can be claimed in “real world” projects, potentially leading to higher project costs than estimated in previous aggregate national analyses.     

Assessing audit impact and thoroughness of VCS forest carbon offset projects

Voluntary markets transacted over $66 million USD of forest carbon offsets in 2016, according to Forest Trends, and over 99% of those offset projects were audited to a standard, primarily the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). We provide a table characterizing all 70 validated and verified forest carbon projects employing the VCS version 3.0 currently-in-use (December 2011–July 2017). We also examine two separate aspects of the audit process––impact and thoroughness––to assess the effectiveness of the costly audit process, which can consume up to one-third of offset revenue. Audit impact we measure in terms of reduction in the number of offsets from ex ante estimated to ex post approved. Audit thoroughness we measure both directly in terms of the number of auditor hours worked per project and also indirectly in terms of the total number of Corrective Action Requests (CARs)/Non-Conformity Reports (NCRs) auditors prescribe. In terms of impact, we find that Afforestation/Reforestation/Restoration (A/R/R) and Improved Forest Management (IFM) projects, though only constituting 5% of total verified offsets, demonstrate significant (p < = 0.05) reductions from ex ante estimated to ex post approved offsets, likely because auditors can easily scrutinize carbon stocks/emission factors for the commercial tree species involved in these project types. In terms of thoroughness, we find that higher ex ante estimates correlate with more total auditor hours worked and total CARs/NCRs prescribed for three of four project activity types, likely because auditors perceive larger ex ante projects as higher risk. We conclude with recommendations for the VCS to empower auditors to scrutinize carbon stocks/emissions factors from avoided deforestation projects, and also to continue to flag high ex ante projects as higher risk.     

Comparison of registry methodologies for reporting carbon benefits for afforestation projects in the United States

No mandatory national program currently exists to mitigate climate change in the US Consequently, voluntary programs and mandatory state-level programs are multiplying to allow users to register emission-offset activities, creating multiple often contradictory measurement and recording standards.For the land use sector we examined a hypothetical project: tree planting on rangelands in California. We apply four sets of protocols from the following registries – the California Climate Action Registry, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and the USDOE 1605(b) program – and compare the results to the ‘actual’ net sequestration and also briefly compare them to international protocols such as the relevant Clean Development Mechanism methodology. Carbon in land use can be estimated accurately, precisely and cost-effectively, but to achieve this requires good protocols. As predicted, the consequence of applying different protocols for reportable carbon was significant. The choice of measurement pools, the handling of the baseline and the issue of uncertainty led to a baseline estimate of 0–66,690 t CO₂-e, and final sequestered carbon totals (after 60 years) that varied between 118,044 and 312,685 t CO₂-e—a factor of 2.5 difference. The amount reported under 1605(b) is the closest to “actual” with CCX entity reporting the most divergent.     

中国实现碳达峰的政策建议——基于碳定价机制模型的多情景模拟分析

碳定价机制是利用市场机制推动碳减排、减缓气候变化方案的核心内容,包括碳排放权交易和碳税等措施。尽管新冠肺炎疫情打乱了经济发展节奏,但是中国主动提高国家自主贡献力度,积极推进战略提升与政策强化。本研究构建并运用"碳定价机制模型"模拟涵盖不同主体范围及政策组合下的碳排放权交易市场运行情况,分析评估碳减排效果及经济影响,为丰富完善我国实现碳达峰的政策工具提供技术支持。