Study On Agricultural Carbon Sink Function And Compensation Mechanism

In recent years, the increase of Greenhouse gases influenced global climate and putthreat to human’s existence and social economic development. It has become a greatenvironmental problem causing widespread concern from international society and theacademic world. This problem can be solved from two aspects: the first is to reducecarbon emission, and the second is to increase carbon sink, the absorption of greenhousegases, especially carbon dioxide. In spite of forest carbon sink, the crops occupying thegreatest area on the earth, especially alimentarn crops also feature carbon sink function.However, because of the economic value of alimentarn crops, the ecological function isoften ignored, which makes it necessary to research on the carbon sink function.The farmland ecological system is an important part of the global land ecologicalsystem, which features carbon source as well as carbon sink. The farmland ecologicalsystem, especially farmland soil has great potential in carbon sequestration. According tothe study of some scholars, the alimentarn crops as rice and wheat have obvious carbonsink function. There is great area of alimentarn farmland in China. Further increase ofprotection and input to alimentarn crop cultivation will not only safeguard alimentarnsecurity, but also can increase carbon sink and help to achieve the goal to reduce carbonemissions.This study takes alimentarn crops as the example to research on agricultural carbonemissions and ecological compensation mechanism. The study includes mainly two parts:the first is to calculate carbon sink function of alimentarn crops and the carbon benefit;the second is to design two carbon ecological compensation mechanisms based on thecalculation. The main contents include:(1) The alimentarn crops feature carbon sink function. As Greenhouse effectaggravates and the environment deteriorates, the carbon sink function of alimentarn crops is beneficial to humans and contains human labor. This function already hasecological environmental value. However, this ecological service did not getcompensation, which caused positive external effect. The alimentarn farmers should getrelative compensation. Besides, according to the WTO regulations, the government’sdirect subsidy to alimentarn crops is restricted. However, the subsidy from the ecologicalangle is not restricted, which is good alternation.(2) Measurement of net carbon sink function of alimentarn crops. The studycalculates the carbon emissions and absorptions separately and gets the net carbonabsorption by the minus of the emissions. The measurement of carbon emissionscontains input things’ carbon emissions, soil respiration emissions and straw burningemissions. The measurement of carbon absorptions contains crop-growing absorptions,soil sequestration and straw sequestration. By multiplying the net carbon absorptions andcarbon price, we get the carbon benefits.(3) The design of alimentarn carbon sink ecological compensation mechanism. Thestudy probes into the compensation subjects, principles, modes and standards. Thecompensating subjects include the governments, enterprises, social groups, etc. Thecompensated subject is alimentarn farmers. The compensation priciples include principleof fairness, the beneficiary pay principle, sustainable development principle, etc. Themain compensation mode is governmental mode. Government mode includes financialcompensation, material compensation, policy compensation and technical compensation.The compensation standards and fund sources are also studied.(4) The design of alimentarn low-carbon cultivation ecological compensationmechanism. Low-carbon cultivation includes reduction of chemical input, low-carbontillage and straw returning. The low-carbon cultivation may influence alimentarn outputand cause loss to farmers. However, it is helpful for emission reduction and carbon sinkincrease, which should be encouraged. Therefore, farmers participating in low-carboncultivation should get compensated. The governments measure increased carbon sink,the loss of production, the costs of the project and opportunity costs of farmers, andcompensate through fiscal transfer payment or special subsidies, which is under thepremise of no falling of farmers’ income. Market compensation is mainly to establish the domestic market for the trading of certified carbon products, or through CDM projects.(5) Case analysis of typical agricultural voluntary emission reduction projects. Thestudy gives brief introduction of overseas precision agriculture emission reductionproject, irrigation energy-saving emission reduction project, rice carbon sink project anddomestic agricultural voluntary emission reduction projects in Shanxi and Sichuanprovince. The features of these cases are studied, as well as their inspiration toagricultural carbon sink compensation in our country.(6) Suggestions to improve alimentarn carbon sink compensation mechanisms. Thestudy also puts forward some suggestions, including enhancing people’s low-carbonawareness, improving relative laws and regulations, and establishing systems like fundand institution safeguard, etc.