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This study aims to investigate how professional financial statement users use carbon accounting information in their decisions and whether this use is sensitive to changing the decision context from an investment to a donation.

Using a sample of 173 US professional financial statement users, the authors conduct an experiment that manipulates an investment or donation choice to evaluate how differing levels of carbon sequestration affect decision-making across contexts.

Carbon sequestration information affects users’ donation decisions but does not affect investment decisions. Variation in the reliability of the information and whether the information is linked to strategy do not affect users’ decision-making.

This study is performed by an experiment and informs our understanding of the relevance to users of carbon sequestration disclosure. Results indicate that carbon sequestration disclosure has value for donation but not investment decisions. The authors interpret this as evidence of some value of this type of disclosure in professional financial statement users’ decision-making but not for a financially focused evaluation.

This paper provides unique insights into the effect of reporting carbon sequestration on decision-making. There has been significant research on the broader topic of corporate sustainability, and capital markets research indicates that the market values increased sustainability disclosure. This study extends the research by examining a specific component of carbon disclosure that is not currently widely reported and by the use of information for different types of evaluations. The results find evidence that the value of this type of carbon disclosure does not stem from a purely financial perspective but instead, from other nonpecuniary factors.

This paper aims to assess factors that affect carbon sequestration on green roofs.

The most current academic literature related to carbon sequestration and green roofs carbon sequestration performance was reviewed.

Factors affecting carbon sequestration were discussed and classified into the following factors: plants, physical and maintenance factors. The authors’ findings are significant because they can be used to optimize green roofs performance for carbon sequestration.

Factors affecting carbon sequestration will optimize intensive green roofs performance.

With the threat of climate change increasing, carbon sequestration could be expected to play a significant role in alleviating this problem. Unfortunately, the technology is not well understood and good literature overviews of the options in carbon sequestration are lacking. Hence, policy and research priorities are made without full understanding of the state of scientific knowledge, impacts, and policy trade‐offs. This paper contributes to the literature, providing a basic picture of the technological options for futurists and policy advisors to begin to address this need.

Emission reduction methodologies alone are not sufficient to mitigate the climatic catastrophes caused due to ongoing carbon emissions. Rather, a bidirectional approach is required to decarbonize the excess carbon in the atmosphere through carbon sequestration along with carbon reduction. Since the manufacturing sector contributes heavily to the ongoing carbon emissions, the purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for carbon emission reduction and carbon sequestration in the context of the manufacturing industry.

In this paper, life cycle assessment (LCA) is employed to track the carbon emission at each stage of the product development life cycle. The pre-requisite for this is the accurate evaluation of the carbon emissions. Therefore, IoT technologies have been employed for collecting real-time data with high credibility to perceive environmental impact caused during the entire life cycle of the product. The total carbon emission calculation is based on the bill of material (BOM)-based LCA of the product to realize the multi-structure (from parts and components to product) as well as multi-stage (from cradle to gate) carbon emission evaluation. Carbon sequestration due to plantation is evaluated using root-shoot ratio and total biomass.

A five interwoven layered structure is proposed in the paper to facilitate the real-time data collection and carbon emission evaluation using BOM-based LCA of products. Further, a carbon neutral coefficient (CNC) is proposed to indicate the state of a firm’s carbon sink and carbon emissions. CNC=1 indicates that the firm is carbon neutral. CNC >1 implies that the firm’s carbon sequestration is more than carbon emissions. CNC <1 indicates that the firm’s carbon emission is more than the carbon sink.

The paper provides a novel framework which integrates the real-time data collection and evaluation of carbon emissions with the carbon sequestration.

The authors aim to investigate the ability of a New Zealand university to rely on the CO₂ sequestered in the trees on campus to mitigate the CO₂ emissions caused by operations.

The authors count and measure the trees on the university's 68 hectare main campus, ignoring smaller trees that sequester very little CO₂.

The authors estimate that the 4,139 trees the authors count contain 5,809 tonnes of CO₂. The authors further estimate the additional CO₂ sequestration over the next ten years to be 253 tonnes per year. The university's annual CO₂ emissions were 4,086 tonnes in 2011. More than 70 per cent of this amount relates to overseas travel. Therefore, CO₂ sequestration in trees promises to mitigate only about 6 per cent of total emissions over the next ten years.

This suggests that other initiatives will be needed if the university is serious about reducing its greenhouse gas emissions impact. An obvious avenue appears to be to reduce overseas travel, e.g. by finding different ways for academic staff to network and obtain feedback on their research. Other universities and other organisations starting to investigate their environmental impact are likely to similarly find that CO₂ sequestration in trees can only provide limited mitigation opportunities.

The authors contribute to the ongoing debate around carbon emissions, exploring avenues to mitigate CO₂ emissions.

Carbon storage in protected land is a practical climate stabilization strategy. It is increasingly being recognized as an essential means of safeguarding biomass carbon and improving local ecological conditions. Yet, increasing soil carbon sequestration by setting aside nature reserves does not depend only on the scale of the reserve but more so on the implementation and enforcement of the reserve protection policy. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

The authors show how nature reserves established and managed by different administrative levels affect carbon sequestration. Empirically, the authors estimate a time-varying difference-in-difference model that exploits China's distinct four-layered hierarchical nature reserve management system at the county level.

The findings show that higher administrative level (i.e. national and provincial) nature reserves have no effects on the carbon dynamic. However, reserves managed by lower administrative levels (i.e. prefecture- and county-level) are associated with reduced carbon sequestration. The results imply local governments fail to fulfil their responsibilities for nature reserves protection, leading to increased extractive activities and declined ecological biomass.

Responsibility and accountability mechanisms for the violation of the nature reserves requirements need to be stipulated accordingly. Greater emphasis should be placed on nature reserves at the base level. The central government should continue efforts toward the establishment of ad hoc and independent management agencies at the ground-management level that are free of influence from base-level governments.

The heterogeneity in the performance of nature reserves across administrative levels confirms that ecosystem service quality is highly dependent on establishment, management and supervision. This provides a better understanding of the socio-ecological interdependence of protected areas.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe key economic and policy‐related issues with regard to terrestrial C sequestration and provide an overview of the economics of C sequestration on agricultural soils in the USA.

Recent economic literature on carbon sequestration was reviewed to gather insights on the role of agriculture in greenhouse gas emissions mitigation. Results from the most salient studies were presented in an attempt to highlight the general consensus on producer‐level responses to C sequestration incentives and the likely mechanisms used to facilitate C sequestration activities on agricultural soils.

The likely economic potential of agriculture to store soil C appears to be considerably less than the technical potential. Terrestrial C sequestration is a readily implementable option for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and can provide mitigation comparable in cost to current abatement options in other industries. Despite considerable research to date, many aspects of terrestrial C sequestration in the USA are not well understood.

The paper provides a useful synopsis of the terms and issues associated with C sequestration, and serves as an informative reference on the economics of C sequestration that will be useful as the USA debates future greenhouse gas emissions mitigation policies.

This paper aims to demonstrate methods that sustainability-conscious brands can use to include their primary producers in the measurement and reporting of the environment and sustainability performance of their supply chains. It explores three questions: How can farm businesses provide information required in sustainability reporting? What are the challenges and opportunities experienced in preparing and presenting the information? What future research and policy instruments might be needed to resolve these issues.

This study identifies and describes methods to provide the farm-level information needed for environmental performance and sustainability reporting frameworks. It demonstrates them by compiling natural capital accounts and environmental performance information for two wool producers in the grassy woodland biome of Eastern Australia; the contrasting history and management of these producers would be expected to result in different environmental performances.

The authors demonstrated an approach to NC accounting that is suitable for including primary producers in environmental performance reporting of supply chains and that can communicate whether individual producers are sustaining, improving or degrading their NC. Measurements suitable for informing farm management and for the estimation of supply chain performance can simultaneously produce information useful for aggregation to regional and national assessments.

The methods used should assist sustainability-conscious supply chains to more accurately assess the environmental performance of their primary producers and to use these assessments in selective sourcing strategies to improve supply chain performance. Empirical measures of environmental performance and natural capital have the potential to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of sustainability accounting frameworks in inducing businesses to reduce their environmental impacts and improve the condition of the natural capital they depend on.

Two significant social implications exist for the inclusion of primary producers in the sustainability and environmental performance reporting of supply chains. Firstly, it presently takes considerable time and expense for producers to prepare this information. Governments and members of the supply chain should acknowledge the value of this information to their organisations and consider sharing some of the cost of its preparation with primary producers. Secondly, the “additionality” requirement commonly present in existing frameworks may perversely exclude already high-performing producers from being recognised. The methods proposed in this paper provide a way to resolve this.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to describe detailed methods of collecting data for natural capital accounting and environmental performance reporting for individual farms and the first to compile the information and present it in a manner coherent with the Kering EP&L and the UN SEEA EA. The authors believe that this will make a significant contribution to the development of fair and standardised ways of measuring individual farm performance and the performance of food, beverage and apparel supply chains.

In order to achieve reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, it is essential that all industry sectors have the appropriate knowledge and tools to contribute. This includes agriculture, which is considered to contribute about a third of emissions globally. This paper reports on one such tool: IMPACCT: Integrated Management oPtions for Agricultural Climate Change miTigation. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

IMPACCT focuses on GHGs, carbon sequestration and associated mitigation options. However, it also attempts to include information on economic and other environmental impacts in order to provide a more holistic perspective. The model identifies mitigation options, likely economic impacts and any synergies and trade-offs with other environmental objectives. The model has been applied on 22 case study farms in seven Member States.

The tool presents some useful concepts for developing carbon calculators in the future. It has highlighted that calculators need to evolve from simply calculating emissions to identifying cost-effective and integrated emissions reduction options.

IMPACCT has potential to become an effective means of provided targeted guidance, as part of a broader knowledge transfer programme based on an integrated suite of guidance, tools and advice delivered via different media.

IMPACCT is a new model that demonstrates how to take a more integrated approach to mitigating GHGs on farms across Europe. It is a holistic carbon calculator that presents mitigation options in the context other environmental and economic objectives in the search for more sustainable methods of food production.

This paper aims at providing the evidence about how carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems could contribute to the decrease of atmospheric CO₂ rates through the adoption of appropriate cropping systems such as agroforestry.

Stratified randomly selected plots were used to collect data on tree diameter at breast height (DBH). Composite soil samples were collected from three soil depths for soil carbon analysis. Above ground biomass estimation was made using an allometric equation. The spectral signature of each plot was extracted to study the statistical relationship between carbon stock and selected vegetation indices.

There was a significant difference in vegetation and soil carbon stocks among the different land use/land cover types (P < 0.05). The potential carbon stock was highest in the vegetation found in sparsely cultivated land (13.13 ± 1.84 tons ha⁻¹) and in soil in bushland (19.21 ± 3.79 tons ha⁻¹). Carbon sequestration potential of the study area significantly increased (+127174.5 tons CO₂e) as a result of conversion of intensively cultivated agricultural lands to agroforestry systems. The amount of sequestered carbon was found to be dependent on species diversity, tree density and tree size. The vegetation indices had a better correlation with soil and total carbon.

The paper has addressed an important aspect in curbing greenhouse gases in integrated land systems. The paper brings a new empirical insight of carbon sequestration potentials of agroforestry systems with a focus on drylands.