has called for the phasing out of carbon emissions while maintaining the production of fossil fuels, a long-time observer of such talks predicts that carbon sequestration will take centre stage in December at the event.
“Now if that happens, it would be controversial,” added Prof Stavins, a Harvard environmental economist, who in the last 15 years has participated in global climate summits. In the cost-benefit analysis on sequestering carbon naturally by planting trees in forestation efforts, Prof Stavins told The Straits Times: “While biological sequestration of carbon could be more cost-effective than other forms of emission mitigation in many cases, arable land for food production would be sacrificed as trees are planted instead, and this could gradually tip the balance towards increased cost.
But there have been instances where some forest-based carbon projects were criticised for claiming averted emissions when there was no real threat of deforestation.Having authored the second, third and fifth assessment reports on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Prof Stavins highlighted the problem of the quality of carbon credits at a dialogue held at NTU last Wednesday.