RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Estimating Leakage from Forest Carbon Sequestration Programs
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 109
OP 124
DO 10.2307/3147147
VO 80
IS 1
A1 Murray, Brian C.
A1 McCarl, Bruce A.
A1 Lee, Heng-Chi
YR 2004
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/80/1/109.abstract
AB Leakage from forest carbon sequestration—the amount of a program’s direct carbon benefits undermined by carbon releases else-where—depends critically on demanders’ ability to substitute non-reserved timber for timber targeted by the program. A nalytic, econometric, and sector-level optimization models are combined to estimate leakage from different forest carbon sequestration activities. Empirical estimates for the United States show leakage ranges from minimal (< 10%) to enormous (> 90%), depending on the activity and region. These results suggest that leakage effects should not be ignored in accounting for the net level of greenhouse gas offsets from land use and forestry mitigation activities. (JEL Q25, Q32)