Biofuels and the Time Value of Carbon

This briefing from the World Resources Institute provides accounting recommendations for quantifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impact of land-use change for biofeedstock production, specifically addressing the challenges of aggregating emissions and avoided emissions over time.

• A GHG accounting method for land-use change in biofeedstock production should analyze expected damages of carbon flows over time and use monetary units associated with that damage, discounted to compare future impacts with present ones.
• The document argues against discounting physical carbon flows based on financial discount rates, stating there is little theoretical justification for doing so as they are not analogous to interest rates or the social rate of time preference.
• Accounting should distinguish between the 'project horizon' (the period of feedstock cultivation and fossil fuel displacement) and the 'impact horizon' (the period over which atmospheric impacts are felt). The impact horizon should be a rolling target relative to the year of emissions rather than a fixed target relative to the project's start year.
• If full-cost accounting is bypassed, alternative discount procedures for carbon units should consider non-constant numbers like declining discount rates for the impact horizon, different figures for the two time horizons, and a range of values including zero or negative numbers.
• Carbon benefits from revegetation or acreage reversion should be excluded from the GHG accounting protocol for land-use conversion for feedstock production, as these benefits are not guaranteed at the time of initial conversion.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Biofuels and the Time Value of Carbon. https://www.wri.org/research/biofuels-and-time-value-carbon

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Biofuels and the Time Value of Carbon. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/biofuels-and-time-value-carbon.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Biofuels and the Time Value of Carbon |url=https://www.wri.org/research/biofuels-and-time-value-carbon |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendbiofuels, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Biofuels and the Time Value of Carbon}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/biofuels-and-time-value-carbon}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }