Forests in climate policy: technical,institutional and economic issues in measurement and monitoring |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Molly?K?MacauleyEmail author Roger?A?Sedjo |
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Institution: | (1) Resources for the Future, 1616 P St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036, USA;(2) Center for Forest Economics and Policy, Washington, DC 20036, USA |
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Abstract: | Despite the economic and environmental significance of the world’s forests, we have limited data about them. Estimates of
deforestation in tropical countries and rates of reforestation or afforestation in boreal and temperate countries are inconsistent.
Accordingly, estimates of emissions released in deforestation vary widely and range from 7% to 17% of all sources of greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions. The lack of good data severely hampers efforts to shape climate policy because it is difficult to model
the role of forests both in the physical global carbon (C) cycle and in cost-effective regimes to abate GHG. Data limits strain
the capacity of even the best models to estimate marginal cost functions for forest carbon (C) sequestration. It is technically
possible to obtain better information, but for institutional and economic reasons these technologies have not yet been fully
deployed. The emergence of carbon (C) trading or tax policy in which forest carbon (C) storage becomes valued would strengthen
incentives to supply better data, as would nonmarket regulation if it elicited a shadow value of forest carbon (C) in substituting
for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. “Geo-wiki” may provide a short-term solution to at least part of the data problem.
The ultimate solution is the development of a comprehensive forest monitoring system involving remote sensing and on-the-ground
truthing. This paper briefly discusses the role of forests in climate policy and then describes data gaps, the capability
of technology to fill them, the limits of institutions and budgets in realizing this capability, and possible near-term solutions. |
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