The opportunity cost of delaying climate action: Peatland restoration and resilience to climate change
The opportunity cost of delaying climate action: Peatland restoration and resilience to climate change
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DOI：
10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102323
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发表时间：
2021-07-23
影响因子：
8.9
通讯作者：
Potts, Jacqueline
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Glenk, Klaus;Faccioli, Michela;Potts, Jacqueline
生态系统恢复，特别是泥炭地恢复，被认为是一个有前途的温室气体（GHG）减排战略，以实现净零排放。为了保持在预测升温情景的可接受限度内，短期内在温室气体缓解方面不采取行动意味着需要在较长期内清除更大的温室气体，这可以被概念化为“缓解债务”。本文探讨了延迟温室气体减排的经济影响，通过生态系统恢复使用的数据的一个大型调查（N = 1377），其中包括一个选择实验，以引起公众的意愿支付（WTP）泥炭地恢复在苏格兰，英国。估值特别考虑了恢复行动的时机与长期生态系统复原力之间的相互作用。我们发现，受访者有大量的泥炭地恢复的支付意愿。重要的是，我们发现早期恢复行动带来了相当大的好处（在我们的案例研究中，每年高达1.91亿磅），这与泥炭地在未来气候变化下的恢复力增加有关。这表明，推迟恢复从而积累缓解债务具有重要的机会成本，会大大减少相关的经济效益。对气候变化的态度和气候变化的信念被发现，以解释公众的支付意愿的变化。我们的研究加强了不通过生态系统恢复延迟减缓气候变化的经济论点，表明减缓债务也会转化为福利损失。然而，为了充分实现与泥炭地恢复直接缓解相关的潜在效益，需要更多地了解促进实践中大规模实施的机制。
Ecosystem restoration and, in particular, peatland restoration, are considered a promising greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation strategy to move towards net zero emissions. To remain within acceptable limits for projected warming scenarios, inaction with respect to GHG mitigation in the short term implies a need for even larger removals of GHGs in the longer term, which can be conceptualized as a 'mitigation debt'. This paper explores the economic implications of delaying GHG mitigation through ecosystem restoration using data of a large survey (N = 1377) that included a choice experiment to elicit the public's willingness to pay (WTP) for peatland restoration in Scotland, UK. The valuation specifically considers the interaction between the timing of restoration action and long-term ecosystem resilience. We find that respondents have a substantial WTP for peatland restoration. Importantly, we find considerable benefits for early restoration action (up to 191 pound million annually in our case study), which is linked to an increased resilience of peatlands under future climate change. This demonstrates that delaying restoration and thus accumulating a mitigation debt has an important opportunity cost that substantially decreases the related economic benefits. Attitudes towards climate change and climate change beliefs are found to explain variation in the public's WTP. Our research strengthens the economic argument for not delaying climate change mitigation through ecosystem restoration, demonstrating that the mitigation debt also translates into a welfare loss. To fully realise the potential benefits associated with immediate mitigation using peatland restoration, however, more needs to be understood about the mechanisms that facilitate large-scale implementation in practice.