气候变化领域集成服务门户(CCPortal): Forest regeneration on European sheep pasture is an economically viable climate change mitigation strategy

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DOI	10.1088/1748-9326/abaf87
	Forest regeneration on European sheep pasture is an economically viable climate change mitigation strategy
	O'Neill C.; Lim F.K.S.; Edwards D.P.; Osborne C.P.
发表日期	2020
ISSN	17489318
卷号	15 期号:10
英文摘要	Livestock production uses 37% of land globally and is responsible for 15% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Yet livestock farmers across Europe receive billions of dollars in annual subsidies to support their livelihoods. This study evaluates whether diverting European subsidies into the restoration of trees on abandoned farmland represents a cost-effective negative-emissions strategy for mitigating climate change. Focusing on sheep farming in the United Kingdom, and on natural regeneration and planted native forests, we show that, without subsidies, sheep farming is not profitable when farmers are paid for their labour. Despite the much lower productivity of upland farms, upland and lowland farms are financially comparable per hectare. Conversion to 'carbon forests' is possible via natural regeneration when close to existing trees, which are seed sources. This strategy is financially viable without subsidies, meeting the net present value of poorly performing sheep farming at a competitive $4/tCO2eq. If tree planting is required to establish forests, then ∼$55/tCO2eq is needed to break-even, making it uneconomical under current carbon market prices without financial aid to cover establishment costs. However, this break-even price is lower than the theoretical social value of carbon ($68/tCO2eq), which represents the economic cost of CO2 emissions to society. The viability of land-use conversion without subsidies therefore depends on low farm performance, strong likelihood of natural regeneration, and high carbon-market price, plus overcoming potential trade-offs between the cultural and social values placed on pastoral livestock systems and climate change mitigation. The morality of subsidising farming practices that cause high GHG emissions in Europe, whilst spending billions annually on protecting forest carbon in less developed nations to slow climate change is questionable. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
英文关键词	carbon costs; forest regeneration; greenhouse gas mitigation; livestock; pasture; subsidies
语种	英语
scopus关键词	Carbon; Commerce; Cost effectiveness; Costs; Economic and social effects; Farms; Gas emissions; Greenhouse gases; Land use; Reforestation; Abandoned farmland; Climate change mitigation; Economically viable; Farming practices; Forest regeneration; Livestock production; Livestock systems; Natural regeneration; Climate change; climate change; climate effect; economic analysis; environmental economics; environmental impact; mitigation; pasture; regeneration; sheep; strategic approach; Ovis aries
来源期刊	Environmental Research Letters
文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://gcip.llas.ac.cn/handle/2XKMVOVA/153587
作者单位	Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom; Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	O'Neill C.,Lim F.K.S.,Edwards D.P.,et al. Forest regeneration on European sheep pasture is an economically viable climate change mitigation strategy[J],2020,15(10).
APA	O'Neill C.,Lim F.K.S.,Edwards D.P.,&Osborne C.P..(2020).Forest regeneration on European sheep pasture is an economically viable climate change mitigation strategy.Environmental Research Letters,15(10).
MLA	O'Neill C.,et al."Forest regeneration on European sheep pasture is an economically viable climate change mitigation strategy".Environmental Research Letters 15.10(2020).