IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v8y2017i1d10.1038_ncomms15513.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The social inefficiency of regulating indirect land use change due to biofuels

Author

Listed:
  • Madhu Khanna

    (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois)

  • Weiwei Wang

    (University of Illinois)

  • Tara W. Hudiburg

    (Rangeland, and Fire Sciences)

  • Evan H. DeLucia

    (Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment, University of Illinois)

Abstract

Efforts to reduce the indirect land use change (ILUC) -related carbon emissions caused by biofuels has led to inclusion of an ILUC factor as a part of the carbon intensity of biofuels in a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. While previous research has provided varying estimates of this ILUC factor, there has been no research examining the economic effects and additional carbon savings from including this factor in implementing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard. Here we show that inclusion of an ILUC factor in a national Low Carbon Fuel Standard led to additional abatement of cumulative emissions over 2007–2027 by 1.3 to 2.6% (0.6–1.1 billion mega-grams carbon-dioxide-equivalent (Mg CO2e−1) compared to those without an ILUC factor, depending on the ILUC factors utilized. The welfare cost to the US of this additional abatement ranged from $61 to $187 Mg CO2e−1 and was substantially greater than the social cost of carbon of $50 Mg CO2e−1.

Suggested Citation

  • Madhu Khanna & Weiwei Wang & Tara W. Hudiburg & Evan H. DeLucia, 2017. "The social inefficiency of regulating indirect land use change due to biofuels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15513
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15513
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms15513?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Madhu Khanna & Xiaoguang Chen & Weiwei Wang & Anthony Oliver, 2022. "Repeal of the Clean Power Plan: Social Cost and Distributional Implications," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 104(1), pages 33-51, January.
    2. Yang, Lan & Wang, Xue-Chao & Dai, Min & Chen, Bin & Qiao, Yuanbo & Deng, Huijing & Zhang, Dingfan & Zhang, Yizhe & Villas Bôas de Almeida, Cecília Maria & Chiu, Anthony S.F. & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & W, 2021. "Shifting from fossil-based economy to bio-based economy: Status quo, challenges, and prospects," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:8:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms15513. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.