How effective are forests in mitigating climate change?

摘要

Nordhaus' DICE model is used to investigate the economics of planting trees on 900 million ha of lands that can be reforested or afforested, as proposed by a number of researchers. By looking at the most optimistic restoration case, a large terrestrial sink can reduce projected future temperatures by more than 30%, with accompanying smaller marginal damages. It also turns out that optimal levels of industrial emissions increase, thereby reducing the beneficial temperature response of the forestry investment. While the results appear optimistic, the forestry project takes too long to have an impact if climate change is considered to be an urgent problem. Based on the analysis, one can conclude that the forestry tool needs to be implemented immediately or not at all.