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Research article2011Peer reviewed

Damned if you do, damned if you do not-Reduced Climate Impact vs. Sustainable Forests in Sweden

Geijer, Erik; Brännlund, Runar; Bostedt, Kjell Göran

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the potential goal conflict between two of Sweden's environmental objectives: Sustainable Forests and Reduced Climate Impact - or, more precisely, the conflict between forest conservation and the supply of wood fuel. To accomplish this, we use a forest sector model that includes the suppliers and major users of roundwood. The econometric results, based on a data set that spans 40 years, show that all the own price elasticities have the expected signs. Among the three forestry products, the supply and (long-term) demand of forest fuel seems to be most sensitive to a price change. In a second step, the estimated model is used to simulate the effect of increased forest conservation - the Sustainable Forest objective - on the supply of wood fuel. If oil is used as a substitute, Swedish emissions of greenhouse gases will increase by almost 0.92 percent, which indicates a clear conflict with the Reduced Climate Impact objective. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Goal conflict; Wood fuels; Forest sector model; Roundwood markets; Forest conservation

Published in

Resource and Energy Economics
2011, Volume: 33, number: 1, pages: 94-106
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

      SLU Authors

        • Sustainable Development Goals

        SDG7 Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
        SDG15 Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
        SDG12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

        UKÄ Subject classification

        Forest Science
        Renewable Bioenergy Research
        Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use

        Publication identifier

        DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2010.01.004

        Permanent link to this page (URI)

        https://res.slu.se/id/publ/47394