Carbon (C) sequestration in agricultural soils is forwarded as an option for meeting the objective of making the EU climate neutral by 2050, but the efficiency is questioned due to the non-permanent nature of soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks. The purpose of this study is to examine cost-effective strategies for enhancing C sequestration in agricultural soil across 26 EU countries from 2020 to 2050 while accounting for non-permanence. We develop a dynamic and spatially disaggregated cost-effectiveness model considering three measures: reductions in grain and straw harvests and catch crop cultivation, used to compare the minimum costs of meeting annual national and EU level targets for either sequestration or emissions. The results show that national targets are about 2.6 times more costly than the corresponding EU targets, and emission targets are about 2.5 times more expensive than the corresponding sequestration targets. Findings suggest C sequestration in agricultural soils has the potential to mitigate approximately 38 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) annually from 2020 to 2050 at a marginal cost of approximately 64 euro per tonne. If emissions are targeted, the same mitigation could be achieved at a marginal cost of about 183 euro per tonne. The use of annual targets implies the shadow price on C sequestration in soils is jointly determined by the target stringency in preceding, contemporary, and future time periods. The highest shadow price is found around the year 2030. This suggests the use of temporally varying economic incentives for C sequestration in agricultural soils.

Land use conversion entails trade-offs across multiple ecosystem services of wildlife. Wildlife is often characterized by spatiotemporal dynamics that affect this trade-off. The aim of this paper is to examine the net benefits from changes in the land use composition, given the consequences for the benefits provided by a harvested migratory prey species. The study is applied to land use and roe deer hunting in Sweden. We examine the spatial dynamics of land use, predator populations, prey, and prey hunting, by developing a bioeconomic model that is estimated using a dynamic spatial-lag model (dynamic SAR). The results show that a conversion of coniferous and broadleaf forests into grazing land increases game harvests and could offset the negative impact of large carnivores on hunting outcomes. Yet, such conversion is likely to be associated with a net social cost. In contrast, there are both increased game harvests and net economic gains from conversion of coniferous forests into broadleaves. Our findings are informative for policymaking on land use and wildlife management.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) is a key component of soil organic matter, playing a vital role in soil fertility, health, biodiversity, and food production. Enhancing SOC in agricultural soils has been proposed as a strategy to mitigate climate change. Returning crop residues to the soil is a widely recognized approach to increase SOC, although residues can also be combusted for energy or processed via anaerobic digestion for biogas. This study evaluated the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils across 27 European countries using scenario analysis within a modeling framework. Various crop residue management strategies were considered alongside the impacts of rising temperatures. Simulations were performed with the process-based C-TOOL model, using input data from European databases on crop cultivation, soil properties, and climate. Results indicate that treated crop residues sequester more SOC than untreated residues due to differences in decomposability. While projected temperature increases may reduce SOC accumulation, the use of treated residues still provides a positive effect across all countries. These findings highlight the dual potential of residue management for energy production and SOC enhancement in European agroecosystems. Future studies should adopt a broader systems perspective, integrating techno-economic and energy-yield analyses, while assessing SOC sequestration benefits and greenhouse gas implications of different energy conversion pathways through full life cycle analysis. Considering local pedo-climatic, socioeconomic, and policy conditions, and leveraging national-scale data, will be critical for developing sustainable, effective, and policy-relevant SOC management strategies.

Policymakers increasingly seek to promote agricultural carbon sequestration, avoiding both income losses for farmers and excessive public implementation costs. This study compares practice- and results-based subsidies to soil carbon sequestration with respect to their total costs, sequestration achieved, and income effects. We develop a numerical model that maximizes social net benefits while accounting for private transaction costs, public monitoring costs, and regional and farm type heterogeneity. The findings reveal that results-based subsidies deliver higher net benefits and sequestration. The per hectare monitoring costs for a practice-based scheme must be less than 30 per cent of those for a results-based scheme for the former to deliver higher net benefits, given a carbon price of 250 €/tCO₂e. Sensitivity analysis shows that higher carbon prices require the monitoring costs of a practice-based scheme to be even lower relative to those of a results-based scheme in order to outperform it.

Biochar application on agricultural land is promoted for its high permanence as a carbon sink. This study examines the spatiotemporal dynamics and economic net benefits of biochar sequestration in EU agricultural soils from 2020 to 2050. A discrete time dynamic economic optimization model, spatially disaggregated across 26 EU member states, evaluates trade-offs between using agricultural residues for biochar, bioenergy, direct soil incorporation, and cover crops. Results show that biochar will become economically viable within the next decade, with optimal carbon stocks reaching 0.6–6.8 tonnes per hectare by 2050. Countries with abundant biomass benefit most due to economies of scale and lower transport costs. By 2050, optimal carbon sequestration yields a net present value of about 212 billion euro, including 36 billion from biochar. Sensitivity analysis underscores the influence of carbon pricing, production costs, and regional biomass supply. Biochar thus offers a cost-effective, regionally variable mitigation option for the EU.

Carbon sequestration is suggested as a cost-effective strategy for climate mitigation. However, transaction costs (TRCs) for carbon sequestration projects, that is, the costs of establishment, management, compliance with trading requirements, and monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV), are often overlooked. The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of TRCs in forest carbon sequestration projects through a meta-regression analysis. This study finds 31 peer-reviewed papers published from 2000 to 2022 in international journals and with sufficient information about TRCs and project contexts. The studies report TRCs that vary from <0.1 to 1,084.6 US$/tCO2e, with a median of 1.1 US$/tCO2e, and a couple of high-end outliers. This study explores the role of determinants of reported TRCs in terms of project characteristics, policy instrument applied, institutional context, methods used and TRC categories considered. Results reveal that overall TRCs increase proportionally with the amount of carbon sequestered. The findings further suggest that projects generating offset credits or receiving payments for ecosystem services, exhibit about 16 and 4 times higher TRCs, respectively, than projects not tied to specific policy instruments. Moreover, studies only reporting a single TRC category show systematically lower costs, raising concerns for the use of such studies in a real-world policy context due to the risk of TRCs being underestimated.

Provision of safe drinking water continues to be a challenge in water-stressed African regions. This paper investigates how water scarcity affects diarrheal illness and health insurance uptake in Ethiopia. It further examines heterogeneous effects related to households' water purification habits and handwashing facilities, and identifies underlying mechanisms. The study combines socioeconomic data with high-resolution weather and water quality test data. The analysis uses an instrumental variables approach with temperature shocks as an instrument for water scarcity. Findings indicate that a 1% rise in water scarcity is associated with an increased probability of diarrheal illness by 4.2% and acquisition of health insurance by 2.5%. The impact on diarrheal illness is larger among households that do not boil their water and lack access to handwashing facilities with water. No significant difference in health insurance ownership is observed between households that purify drinking water and those that do not. This result potentially reflects higher risk aversion among the former. The effects are driven by households' use of unimproved water and sanitation facilities as well as higher medical spending on doctor visits and prescribed medications. These results highlight the need to improve water access and expand health insurance to reduce climate-related health risks in Ethiopia.

Policies for mitigating the eutrophication of coastal waters typically focus on reducing land-based emissions. Fish and fisheries management have been suggested as a potentially efficient complementary measure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cost-effective achievement of targets for coastal water transparency with the help of adjusted harvesting strategies for predatory fish, biomanipulation of prey fish, and nutrient load mitigation, taking natural variations in water color into account. We develop an empirical steady-state bioeconomic model and apply it to two case areas along the Swedish Baltic Sea. Results show that prey fish stocks, which negatively affect water transparency, are reduced to a minimum in one study area, while an interior solution with a positive harvest is found in the other. Policies targeting fish management can be relevant for locally tailored strategies to mitigate eutrophication.

Climate change is expected to affect precipitation and temperature, with consequences for water availability and sanitation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how precipitation and temperature affect households’ decisions on sanitation facilities that vary in their dependence on water for operation. To this end, we use household-level panel data from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey in combination with location-matched, high-resolution weather data. Employing a panel fixed-effects regression model, the findings reveal that higher precipitation is significantly associated with an 18% lower (higher) likelihood of using improved (unimproved) sanitation facilities, respectively. Higher temperature has the opposite effect. Both precipitation and temperature have heterogeneous impacts: the effect of precipitation is significant only in male-headed households, while temperature affects the use of shared improved facilities in towns and urban areas. One potential explanation for the influence of precipitation is that heavy precipitation can disrupt access to piped water and sanitation networks by causing physical damage to infrastructure. Furthermore, higher temperature may accelerate the decomposition of solids in septic tanks, thereby reducing the need for water. These findings could help policymakers and practitioners implement evidence-based sanitation interventions to increase access to improved sanitation facilities.