ncx-co / ifm_deferred_harvest

Documents, Data, and Code. The NCX Methodology For Improved Forest Management (IFM) Through Short-Term Harvest Deferral.
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Public Comment: 213 (Andrea Tuttle) #213

Closed ncx-gitbot closed 1 year ago

ncx-gitbot commented 1 year ago

Commenter Organization: Forest and Climate Policy

Commenter: Andrea Tuttle

2021 Deferred Harvest Methodology Section: No Section Indicated

Comment: • Conversion factor: Significant questions have emerged regarding the conversion factor used to calculate how many one-year tons are required to offset a full ton of carbon pollution with the equivalence of 100-year permanence. The findings cast significant doubt on the assumptions, calculations and metrics provided by NCX. Until scientific consensus emerges the method should not be approved. For reference see: CarbonPlan, Jan. 2022 https://carbonplan.org/blog/ton-year-ncx.

Proposed Change: No Proposed Change

ncx-gitbot commented 1 year ago

NCX response: The goal of climate mitigation is more about mitigating the damage caused by climate change, rather than the actual quantity of carbon in the atmosphere. The carbon in the atmosphere causes increased temperatures through climate forcing, which in turn lead to costly economic and social damages to our water, homes, businesses, and livelihoods. The long-standing research and implementation of the Social Cost of Carbon approximates the net present value of the perpetual stream of future costs and damages caused by climate change. For our methodology, we apply a similar economic framing and a net discount rate of 3.0% to identify the equivalence ratio between the benefits of delaying emissions for 1 year compared with 100 years. See Parisa et al. 2022 for a full explanation of how this economic model yields an economic equivalence between credits of different durations. In order to incentivize action today to avoid those future damages, it is appropriate to use a similar economic framework to calculate the benefits of near-term climate action. While a ratio does not signify a physical equivalence, it does appropriately value the future economic benefits of physical action today.