Incremental costs of carbon storage in forestry, bioenergy and land‐use

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive and consistent methodology to account for the incremental costs and net changes in carbon stocks for different categories of forestry and biomass energy projects. The methodology allows consistent comparisons of the costs and quantities of carbon stored in different types of projects and/or national programs, facilitating the inclusion of forestry and biomass energy projects in a possible CO₂ emission reduction regime. The framework presented includes guidelines for defining a reference case against which carbon‐storage projects are compared, a carbon‐storage accounting method based on simple analytic techniques for one‐time terrestrial sinks, an endowment approach to incremental costing, and a discussion of local benefits and risk factors.

Key words:

• Terrestrial carbon sinks
• carbon storage costs
• global climate change
• carbon stock models
• forest conservation
• reforestation
• biomass energy