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Résumé

Le protocole de Kyoto, entré en vigueur en février 2005, permet aux pays de recourir à des “activités supplémentaires”, consistant notamment en la séquestration du carbone dans les sols agricoles. Les travaux existants qui étudient la séquestration optimale du carbone reconnaissent l’importance de la temporalité de la séquestration, mais négligent le fait qu’il s’agit d’un processus dynamique asymétrique. Cet article prend explicitement en compte la temporalité de la séquestration. Sa première contribution réside dans la modélisation de l’asymétrie du processus de séquestration/déséquestration au niveau microéconomique et de ses conséquences au niveau macroéconomique. Sa deuxième contribution est empirique. Nous calculons numériquement la trajectoire optimale de séquestration/déséquestration pour des fonctions de dommages et de coûts spécifiques, et un étalonnage qui reproduit grosso modo les conditions mondiales. Nous montrons qu’avec ces hypothèses, la séquestration doit être permanente et que l’erreur commise lorsque la séquestration est supposée être immédiate peut être très importante.

Abstract

The Kyoto Protocol, which came into force in February 2005, allows countries to resort to ‘supplementary activities’, consisting particularly in carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Existing papers studying the optimal carbon sequestration recognize the importance of the temporality of sequestration, but overlook the fact that it is an asymmetric dynamic process. This paper takes explicitly into account the temporality of sequestration. Its first contribution lies in the modelling of the asymmetry of the sequestration/de-sequestration process at a micro level, and of its consequences at a macro level. Its second contribution is empirical. We compute numerically the optimal path of sequestration/de-sequestration for specific damage and cost functions, and a calibration that mimics roughly the world conditions. We show that with these assumptions sequestration must be permanent, and that the error made when sequestration is supposed immediate can be very significant.

Citation

Text 
Ragot, Lionel and Schubert, Katheline, (2008), The optimal carbon sequestration in agricultural soils: Do the dynamics of the physical process matter?, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 32, issue 12, p. 3847-3865, https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:12:p:3847-3865.

BibTex 
@ARTICLE{RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:12:p:3847-3865,
title = {The optimal carbon sequestration in agricultural soils: Do the dynamics of the physical process matter?},
author = {Ragot, Lionel and Schubert, Katheline},
year = {2008},
journal = {Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control},
volume = {32},
number = {12},
pages = {3847-3865},
abstract = {The Kyoto Protocol, which came into force in February 2005, allows countries to resort to 'supplementary activities', consisting particularly in carbon sequestration in agricultural soils. Existing papers studying the optimal carbon sequestration recognize the importance of the temporality of sequestration, but overlook the fact that it is an asymmetric dynamic process. This paper takes explicitly into account the temporality of sequestration. Its first contribution lies in the modelling of the asymmetry of the sequestration/de-sequestration process at a micro level, and of its consequences at a macro level. Its second contribution is empirical. We compute numerically the optimal path of sequestration/de-sequestration for specific damage and cost functions, and a calibration that mimics roughly the world conditions. We show that with these assumptions sequestration must be permanent, and that the error made when sequestration is supposed immediate can be very significant.},
keywords = {Environment Agriculture Carbon sequestration Kyoto Protocol Optimal control},
url = {https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:32:y:2008:i:12:p:3847-3865}
}