Soil Carbon Economics
This session welcomes empirical, methodological, and theoretical contributions that address the economic dimensions of soil carbon sequestration across a wide range of land uses and ecosystems (cropland, grassland, forest, urban, rehabilitated soils, etc.). This extends to circular economy approaches that model carbon fluxes and the efficient allocation of resources at various scales.
Expected contributions may notably examine the design and performance of existing or potential instruments aimed at incentivizing soil carbon sequestration (carbon farming schemes, tax, certification, etc.). The assessment of their environmental and economic effectiveness is of particular interest, as well as their implications for the creation and distribution of value along the value chain. Contributions investigating the coherence of instruments across environmental issues, scales, and sectors (agriculture and food, energy, etc.) are also welcome. A focus will be placed on the integration of biophysical and economic models. Submissions that reflect critically on model coupling, assumptions, and validation methods are encouraged.
This session will also serve as a bridge to address issues related to monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), notably how the cost, uncertainty, and precision of MRV systems shape adoption of voluntary carbon instruments, and how non-carbon co-benefits—such as biodiversity, water retention, and soil health—are integrated and valued. We also welcome studies characterizing the demand and willingness to pay for agricultural and forest carbon credits, with a particular attention to their quality (reliability of the certification framework, additionality, permanence).
