Crops and Carbon: Paying Farmers to Combat Climate Change

Citation

(2012), "Crops and Carbon: Paying Farmers to Combat Climate Change", International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Vol. 4 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijccsm.2012.41404daa.011

Crops and Carbon: Paying Farmers to Combat Climate Change

Article Type: Books and resources From: International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management, Volume 4, Issue 4

Mike Robbins,Routledge,London,2011,US$ 84.95,320 pp.,ISBN 1849713758

This book, by Mike Robbins, argues that wealthier countries are paying poorer countries to fight climate change on their behalf through the use of carbon sinks; reservoirs of organic carbon tied up in plants and in the earth, rather than being in the atmosphere as greenhouse gases. The book offers a critical appraisal of this mode of climate change mitigation, considering its scientific, economic and ethical basis. Can it work? Is it just? Will poorer countries benefit? Previous attention has been focused mainly on reducing emissions from deforestation and land degradation (REDD), but this book instead examines the potential for carbon sinks in agriculture, in crop plants and the soil. In assessing this, the author considers how north-south climate mitigation trading works, or does not, and highlights the key pitfalls. It discusses the complex relationship between agriculture, particularly different forms of farming systems, and the mitigation of climate change. The findings of original research with farmers in Brazil is also presented to demonstrate the challenges and prospects which these proposals offer in terms of payments for environmental services from agriculture through carbon trading.

UKERC report – “Carbon capture and storage: realising the potential?”

“Carbon capture and storage: realising the potential?” is the culmination of a two-year project funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The report assesses the technical, economic, financial and social uncertainties facing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, and analyses the role they could play in achieving UK energy policy goals. Its publication follows the re-launch of the UK’s £1 billion competition to develop commercial scale CCS projects. The report identifies four key areas where difficult choices need to be made:

1. 1.

   Deciding whether to keep options open, or close them down. When developing nuclear, the French backed one option. This could speed development, but risk choosing an inferior technology.

2. 2.

   Designing financial support for effective CCS demonstration and deployment. A regulatory approach that makes CCS compulsory for all fossil plants will only work if the technology is more advanced, and the additional costs can be passed onto consumers.

3. 3.

   Developing new energy technologies can take a long time, and the process is often far from smooth. This requires patience, but government may need to decide at some point whether to continue funding CCS or divert money to other low carbon options.

4. 4.

   Dealing with storage liabilities.

The report shows highlights lessons from UK nuclear waste management policy to show how complex liability arrangements for CO2 storage could be. It can be seen at: www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/tiki-index.php?page=ES_RP_SystemsCCS