Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1572:
Accounting aspects of ocean iron fertilization
Wilfried Rickels, Katrin Rehdanz and Andreas Oschlies
Abstract: Diminishing emission budgets and increasing risks of
catastrophic damages from climate change require analyses of rapid response
options including geoengineering options such as ocean iron fertilization
(OIF). To decide whether or not OIF might be such an option an assessment
of its potential as an abatement option as well as its possible side
effects is required. To explore the potential of OIF knowledge on the
change of carbon stocks over time is needed. However, economic aspects
including accounting of carbon credits need to be considered as well. In
our analysis we use data from OIF modeling experiments for different years
and analyze how many carbon credits would be generated and could be used
for compliance. The amount of credit varies with the accounting method
applied. Applying an accounting method which measures the net effect of OIF
for the duration of 100 years leads to an annual carbon uptake of 0.56 to
1.69 GtC. For a shorter fertilization period, e.g. ten years the upper
range increases to 2.57 GtC per year. Offsets due to other GHGs, especially
N2O, as well as operational carbon emissions can be addressed by a discount
factor. Considering all experiments and all accounting methods we find a
maximum discount factor of 15 percent and an average value of 9 percent.
From an economic as well as from an environmental perspective issuing
temporary carbon credits which have to be replaced in the next commitment
period seems most appropriate for short-term OIF and would provide the
largest amount of credits at an early stage. This is equivalent to the
existing tCER regulation under the Kyoto Protocol.
Keywords: climate change, ocean iron fertilization, permanence, carbon accounting; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: Q51,; Q54,; Q56; (follow links to similar papers)
28 pages, December 2009
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