IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i19p8772-d1761632.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Carbon Abatement Effect of Chinese Certified Emission Reduction Projects in Agriculture and Forestry: An Empirical Study

Author

Listed:
  • Chongjia Luo

    (Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China)

  • Xuhai Zhou

    (Center for China and Japan Economic Research, Institute of Japanese Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100007, China)

Abstract

Whether voluntary carbon markets can effectively contribute to climate mitigation remains a debated issue. Taking Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) projects as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employed a difference-in-difference approach calibrated with a county-level panel dataset spanning 2008–2021 to examine the carbon abatement effect of CCER projects. The results show that CCER projects reduced county-level emissions by 2.8%, though this reduction falls short of the levels self-declared by project developers, implying the possibility of overstating emission reductions. The carbon abatement effect is more pronounced in biogas projects and projects verified by large agencies, underscoring the mitigation potential of biogas deployment as well as the importance of professional expertise in enhancing project quality. In addition, CCER projects generate a range of socio-economic benefits, including raising income, creating employment opportunities, and preserving farmland. Overall, this study identified the effectiveness of voluntary carbon markets, providing valuable insights for fostering their further sustainable development.

Suggested Citation

  • Chongjia Luo & Xuhai Zhou, 2025. "Carbon Abatement Effect of Chinese Certified Emission Reduction Projects in Agriculture and Forestry: An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-22, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:19:p:8772-:d:1761632
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8772/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8772/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:19:p:8772-:d:1761632. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.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.