One potential nature-based solution to jointly address poverty and environmental concerns is large-scale tree planting. This study examines the National Greening Program (NGP) in the Philippines, a major tree planting initiative involving 80,522 localized projects that directly or indirectly generated hundreds of thousands of jobs. Utilizing a dynamic difference-in-differences approach that leverages the staggered implementation of the NGP, we find a significant and sizable reduction in poverty, measured via traditional and remotely sensed indicators. The NGP also spurred structural shifts, notably decreasing agricultural employment while boosting unskilled labor and service sector jobs. Our analysis estimates that the NGP sequestered 71.4 to 303 MtCO2 over a decade, achieving a cost efficiency of 2 to 10 per averted tCO2. These findings underscore the potential of tree planting as a dual-purpose strategy for climate mitigation and poverty alleviation.
@article{pagel_sileci_2024,author={Pagel, Jeff and Sileci, Lorenzo},journal={Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 410},title={More than just carbon: the socioeconomic co-benefits of large-scale tree planting},year={2024},month=jul,}
2023
Carbon Pricing with Regressive Co-benefits: Evidence from British Columbia’s Carbon Tax
Lorenzo Sileci
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 405, Dec 2023
The paper has received the 1st prize in the XII Giorgio Rota Best Paper Award for Climate Economics and (its) Knowledge
I assess the air quality and environmental equity impacts of the 2008 carbon tax in British Columbia. Using high-resolution data and a synthetic difference-in-differences strategy, I find that the carbon tax has reduced PM2.5 emissions by 5.2-10.9%. This result is heterogeneously distributed, with larger reductions in areas with lower baseline pollution, lower population density, lower material deprivation, and higher income. While all areas experience substantial positive co-benefits in terms of reduced air pollution hazard rates, quantified at $198 per capita, my results imply a widening of the pre-existing environmental justice gaps. This dynamic represents an additional dimension of carbon tax regressiveness.
@article{sileci_air_2023,author={Sileci, Lorenzo},journal={Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 405},title={Carbon Pricing with Regressive Co-benefits: Evidence from British Columbia's Carbon Tax},year={2023},month=dec,}
Carbon Pricing with Regressive Co-benefits: Evidence from British Columbia’s Carbon TaxGrantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper No. 405, Dec 2023