,
9 tweets,
2 min read
Read on Twitter
1/9 Today's column reports on a private market to pay farmers to sequester carbon in their soil. It's one of the most promising climate policies I’ve seen because it avoids many of the pitfalls of others, as this thread describes. wsj.com/articles/how-t…
2/9 Sequestration can offset fossil fuel emissions which are economically impossible to eliminate (e.g. aviation). It thus makes net-zero emissions (or net-zero increase in emissions) more achievable and less costly.
3/9 The potential considerably exceeds other sequestration schemes: soil could absorb one sixth of global emissions. As usual, barriers are cost & scalability, e.g. introducing regenerative growing where soil is most depleted like Africa. But those barriers are surmountable.
4/9 Unlike carbon capture & storage & other technology-based systems of CO2 extraction, soil sequestration uses centuries-old technology with no safety risks. Microbially treated seeds, unlike GMOs, use organisms already found in nature.
5/9 Sequestering carbon in forests like Amazon pits private against social incentives: it deprives landowners of forest’s alternate value & reduces GDP. Thus, leakage (i.e. tree cutting shifts to a different forest) and resistance e.g. from Bolsonaro are common.
6/9 By contrast, soil sequestration aligns private and social incentives: it enhances the land’s economic value through better yields, healthier food, & lower input costs and thus could raise farm incomes and GDP.
7/9 A carbon tax is a first-best solution to climate change. Since a carbon credit is just a negative carbon tax, it’s a second best solution that incentivizes efficient mitigation, if structured correctly (compliance is a solvable issue).
8/9 Carbon credits should be an easier political sell than carbon taxes. There's already a "45Q" credit for carbon capture and storage by oil and gas companies & their ilk. A similar credit for farmers would surely enjoy more bipartisan support.
9/9 The cost is not outlandish, especially when "deficits don't matter". To sequester 20% of U.S. emissions (1 bn tonnes) @ $15- $30/tonne would cost $15 - $30 billion. Compare that to Green New Deal or $28 billion spent so far on farmer compensation for the trade war. /end
