Additional Useful Resources on Offsets

Official Policy Analysis and Inventories

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2008, EPA 430-R-10-006 (April 2010). Available here >

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Analysis of the American Power Act in the 111th Congress.  June 2010.  Available here >

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Analysis of the American Clean Energy Act and Security Act of 2009, H.R. 2454 in the 111th Congress. June 2009. Available here >
Appendix available here >

European Environment Agency.  Annual European Union greenhouse gas inventory 1990-2008 and inventory report 2010.  June 2010. Available here >

Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, A.J. Sommer, B.M. Depro, K.M. Jones, B.A. McCarl, D. Gillig, B. DeAngelo, and K. Andrasko. 2005. EPA-R-05-006. "Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential in U.S. Forestry and Agriculture." Washington, D.C: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Atmospheric Programs. Available here >

New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Forestry in Emissions Trading Scheme. Available here >

General

Olander, L.P., T.H. Profeta, and C.S. Galik.  2010.  Sticking Points in Offsets Policy.  Nicholas Institute Discussion Memo.  Available here >

Olander, L.P., D.M. Cooley, and B.C. Murray.  2010.  Policy Options for Transitioning from Voluntary to Federal Offsets Markets.  Nicholas Institute Discussion Brief.  Available here >

Murray, B.C. and W. A. Jenkins.  2010.  The Economics of Offsets in a Greenhouse Gas Compliance Market.  Nicholas Institute Policy Brief.  Available here >

Kopp, R.J.  2010.  Role of Offsets in Global and Domestic Climate Policy.  Resources for the Future Issue Brief 10-11. Available here >

Richardson, N.  2010.  International Greenhouse Gas Offsets Under the Clean Air Act.  Resources for the Future discussion paper.  Available here >

Congressional Budget Office.  2009.  The Use of Offsets to Reduce Greenhouse Gases.  Economic and Budget Issue Brief.  Available here >

Pew Center on Global Climate Change, “Greenhouse Gas Offsets in Domestic Cap-and-Trade Program”, November 2008. Available here >

Richards, Kenneth and Krister Andersson. 2001. The leaky sink: Persistent obstacles to a forest carbon sequestration program based on individual projects. Climate Policy 1: 41-54. Available here >

Hall, D.S. 2007. Offsets: Incentivizing Reductions While Managing Uncertainty and Ensuring Integrity. Resources for the Future Issue Brief 15 in Assessing U.S. Climate Policy Options. Available here >

Kossoy, A. and P. Ambrossi.  2010.  State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2010.  Carbon Finance at the World Bank.  Available here >

Point Carbon. 2010.  Carbon 2010: Return of the soverign.  Tvinnereim, E. and K. Roine (eds.)  Available here >

Siikamaki, J. and J. Maher. 2007. Climate Change and U.S. Agriculture. Resources for the Future Issue Brief 13 in Assessing U.S. Climate Policy Options. Available here >

Offset Quality Initiative “Ensuring Offset Quality: Integrating High Quality Greenhouse Gas Offsets Into North American Cap-and-Trade Policy.” July 2008. Available here >

U.S. Government Accountability Office. “International Climate Change Programs: Lessons learned from the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme and the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism” November 2008. GAO-09-181. Available here >

Pew Center on Global Climate Change, “Clean Development Mechanism Backgrounder”, October 2008, Available here >

Wara, M.W. and D.G. Victor. 2008. “A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets”. PESD Working Paper #74, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford University, Stanford, CA. Available here >

Wara, M.W. 2008. “Measuring the Clean Development Mechanism’s Performance and Potential”. UCLA Law Review, 55(6): 1759-1803.
 Available here >

Agriculture and Forest Management

Baker, J.S., B.A. McCarl, B.C. Murray, S.K. Rose, R.J. Alig, D. Adams, G. Latta, R. Beach, and A. Daigneault.  2010.  Net Farm Income and Land Use under a U.S. Greenhouse Gas Cap and Trade System.  Policy Issues, PI7.  Available here >

Murray, B.C. and J.S. Baker.  2010.  An Output-based Intensity Approach for Crediting Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Agriculture: Explanation and Policy Implications.  Nicholas Institute Working Paper.  Available here >

Hamilton, K., U. Chokkalingam, and M. Bendana.  2010.  State of the Forest Carbon Markets 2009: Taking Root and Branching Out.  Ecosystem Marketplace report.  Available here >

Galik, C.S., J.S. Baker, and J.L. Grinnell.  2009.  Transaction costs and forest management carbon offset potential.  Climate Change Policy Partnership working paper.  Available here >

Galik, C.S., M.L. Mobley, and D. deB. Richter.  2009.  A virtual “field test” of forest management carbon offset protocols: the influence of accounting.  Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 14:677-690.  Available here >

Smith, Gordon. “Why emissions from forests should be capped” Guest Commentary. Point Carbon News. Vol 3. Issue 3. 13 February 2008. Available here >

Bigsby, Hugh. “Carbon Banking: Creating flexibility for forest owners.” Forest Ecology and Management 257 (2009) 378-383. Available here >

Galik, C.S., Jackson, R.B. 2009. Risks to forest carbon offset projects in a changing climate. Forest Ecology and Management 257: 2209-2216. Available here >

Malmsheimer, R.W. (Co-Editor), P. Heffernan (Co-Editor), S. Brink, D. Crandall, F. Deneke, C. Galik, E. Gee, J.A. Helms, N. McClure, M. Mortimer, S. Ruddell, M. Smith, J. Stewart. 2008. Forest Management Solutions for Mitigating Climate Change in the United States. Journal of Forestry 106(3):115-171. Available here >

Galik, C.S., D.deB. Richter, M.L. Mobley, L.P. Olander, and B.C. Murray. 2008. A Critical Comparison and Simulated “Field Test” of Forest Management Carbon Offset Protocols. Climate Change Policy Partnership, Duke University, Durham, NC. 46p. Available here >

Depro, B, B. Murray, R. Alig, A. Shanks. 2008. “Public Land, Timber Harvests, and Climate Mitigation: Quantifying Carbon Sequestration Potential on U.S. Public Timberlands.” Forest Ecology and Management 255:1122-1134. Abstract available here >

Murray, B.C. 2004. “Overview of Agricultural and Forestry GHG Offsets on the U.S. Landscape.” Choices Fall:13-18. Available here >

Murray, B.C. 2003. “Carbon Sequestration: A Jointly Produced Forest Output.” Chapter 13 in Forests in a Market Economy, Kluwer.

Co-Effects

Chisolm, R.A.  2010.  Trade-offs between ecosystem services: Water and carbon in a biodiversity hotspot.  Ecological Economics.  Available here >

Nelson, E., G. Mendoza, J. Regetz, et al.  2009.  Modeling multiple ecosystem services, biodiversity conservation, commodity production, and tradeoffs at landscape scales.  Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 7(1): 4-11.  Available here >

Goldman, R.L., H. Tallis, P. Kareiva, and G.C. Daily.  2008.  Field evidence that ecosystem service projects support support biodiversity and diversify options.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(27): 9445-9448.  Available here >

Hurteau, M.D., Koch G.W., and Hungate B.A. (2008) “Carbon protection and fire risk reduction: toward a full accounting of forest carbon offsets” Frontier of Ecology and the Environment, 6: 493-498. Available here >

Jackson, R.B., et al. (2008). “Protecting climate with forests”. Environmental Research Letter, 3: 1-5. Available here >

Plantinga A.J. and J.J. Wu (2003). “Co-benefits from carbon sequestration in forests: evaluating reductions in agricultural externalities from an afforestation policy in Wisconsin” Land Economics, 79: 74-85. Available here >

Pattanayak, S.K. B.A. McCarl, A.J. Sommer, B.C. Murray, T. Bondelid, D. Gillig, and B. DeAngelo. 2005. “Water Quality Co-effects of Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in U.S. Agriculture.” Climatic Change 71(3):341-372. Abstract available here >

Robert B. Jackson, Esteban G. Jobbágy, Roni Avissar, Somnath Baidya Roy, Damian J. Barrett, Charles W. Cook, Kathleen A. Farley, David C. le Maitre, Bruce A. McCarl, and Brian C. Murray (23 December 2005) Trading Water for Carbon with Biological Carbon Sequestration. Science 310 (5756). Available here >

Hongli Feng, Lyubov A. Kurkalova, Catherine L. Kling, Philip W. Gassman. 2007. Transfers and Environmental Co-benefits of carbon sequestration in Agricultural Soils: Retiring Agricultural Land in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Climatic Change 80: 91-107. Paper available here >

Leakage

Jenkins, W.A., L.P. Olander, and B.C. Murray.  2009.  Addressing Leakage in a Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Offsets Program for Forestry and Agriculture.  Available here >

Gan J.B. and McCarl B.A. (2007). “Measuring transnational leakage of forest conservation” Ecological Economics, 62(2): 4232-432. Available here >

Sathaye, J, and K. Andrasko.  2007. “Special issue on estimation of baselines and leakage in carbon mitigation forestry projects.” Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Volume: 12, 963-970p. Available here >

Sohngen, B. and S. Brown. 2004. “Mitigating leakage from carbon projects in open economies: a stop timber harvesting project in Bolivia as a case study.” Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 34: 829-839. Available here >

Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, and M.T. Ross. 2007. “Economic Consequences of Consideration of Permanence, Leakage and Additionality for Soil Carbon Sequestration Projects.” Climatic Change 80:127-143. Abstract available here >

Murray, B.C., B.A. McCarl, and H. Lee. 2004. “Estimating Leakage from Forest Carbon Sequestration Programs.” Land Economics 80(1):109-124. Available here >

Murray, B.C. 2009. “Leakage from an Avoided Deforestation Compensation Policy: Concepts, Empirical Evidence, and Corrective Policy Options,” chapter in Avoided Deforestation: Prospects for Mitigating Climate Change, C. Palmer and S. Engel, (eds). (Oxford, UK: Routledge). Working paper available here >

Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, and M.T. Ross. 2007. “Economic Consequences of Consideration of Permanence, Leakage and Additionality for Soil Carbon Sequestration Projects.” Climatic Change 80:127-143. Abstract available here >

Additionality

*Trexler, Mark, Derik Broekhoff, and Laura Kosloff. 2006. A statistically-driven approach to offset-based GHG additionality determinations. Sustainable Development Law & Policy 6(2):30-40. Available here >

Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, and M.T. Ross. 2007. “Economic Consequences of Consideration of Permanence, Leakage and Additionality for Soil Carbon Sequestration Projects.” Climatic Change 80:127-143. Abstract available here >

Permanence

Murray, B.C. and L.P. Olander.  2008.  Addressing Impermanence Risk and Liability in Agriculture, Land Use Change, and Forest Carbon Projects.  Nicholas Institute Policy Brief.  Available here >

Kim, M, B.A. McCarl, and B.C. Murray. 2008. "Permanence Discounting for Land-Based Carbon Sequestration." Ecological Economics. 64:763-769. Abstract available here >

Murray, B.C., B.L. Sohngen, and M.T. Ross. 2007. “Economic Consequences of Consideration of Permanence, Leakage and Additionality for Soil Carbon Sequestration Projects.” Climatic Change 80:127-143. Abstract available here >

Voluntary Market

Hamilton, K., M. Sjardin, M. Peters-Stanley, and T. Marcello.  2010.  Building Bridges: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2010.  Ecosystem Marketplace report.  Available here >

Ecosecurities, Forest carbon offsetting survey 2009, Available here >

”. Stanford Social Innovation Review, Spring 2009.

Available here >

Voluntary Carbon Standard: Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use Guidance Document. November 2008. Copyright of the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) Association. Available here >

U.S. Government Accountability Office. “Carbon Offsets: The U.S. Voluntary Market is growing, but quality assurance poses challenges for market participants” August 2008. GAO-08-1048. Available Here >

Climate Action Reserve. Voluntary Offset Project Protocols. Current list available here >

REDD

Murray, B.C., L.P. Olander, and D.P. Kanak.  2009.  Forging a Path for High-Quality Compliance REDD Credits.  Nicholas Institute Report.  Available here >

Olander, L.P., W. Boyd, K. Lawlor, E.M. Madeira, J.O. Niles.  2009.  International Forest Carbon and the Climate Change Challenge: Issues and Options.  Nicholas Institute Policy Brief.  Available here >

Center for Clean Air Policy. 2007. Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation: The Dual Markets Approach. Future Actions Dialogue Working Paper, August 2007. Available here >

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). (2008) Moving ahead with REDD: issues, options, implications. Angelsen A. (ed.) Available here >