Storing Carbon Through Tree Planting, Preservation Costs More Than Thought
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for Runaway1956:
Storing carbon through tree planting, preservation costs more than thought:
Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Planting trees and protecting forests are two of the myriad strategies for keeping carbon out of the atmosphere.
Of all the options, they're considered the most eco-friendly, or greenest, but new research suggests planting and protecting trees does come with costs -- and those costs are quite a bit larger than has been previously estimated.
According to a new study, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, planting trees and conserving forests could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much 6 gigatons a year between 2025 and 2055.
Researchers calculated the reductions would come with an annual price tag of $393 billion.
"There is a significant amount of carbon that can be sequestered through forests, but these costs aren't zero," study co-author Brent Sohngen, professor of environmental economics at the Ohio State University, said in a news release.
[...] "Better understanding the costs of mitigation from global forests will help us to prioritize resources and inform the design of more efficient mitigation policies," said Austin, a senior policy analyst with RTI International, a nonprofit research institute based in North Carolina.
Journal Reference:
K. G. Austin, J. S. Baker, B. L. Sohngen, et al. The economic costs of planting, preserving, and managing the world's forests to mitigate climate change [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19578-z)
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