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Study on the Demand for Voluntary Carbon Sequestration Through Afforestation Published as ZEW Discussion Paper
Both the German Climate Protection Act as well as in the European Climate Package assigns an important role to the contribution of natural ecosystems to climate protection. Natural carbon sinks such as forests or peatlands can be used to offset emissions that cannot be avoided at all or only at very high cost.
The present study provides evidence for a high level of public support for this approach. Using a framed-field experiment, we examine the individual willingness to pay for carbon sequestration thorough forests in the context of a tree donation campaign. We specifically investigate the role of local co-benefits and combine our experimental data with spatial data to analyze the effects of spatial distance on individual willingness to pay.
We find that participants' willingness to support additional tree planting activities is significantly higher than supporting voluntary carbon offsets by e.g. purchasing and retiring allowances from the EU ETS. Emphasizing local co-benefits, does not lead to an increase in the willingness to pay. However, with increasing spatial distance, the probability of supporting the local tree campaign decreases.