Cómo los mercados de carbono subestiman sistemáticamente los beneficios climáticos de los bosques tropicales

The report contends that carbon markets focus exclusively on greenhouse gas emissions, failing to account for biophysical processes—such as evapotranspiration and albedo—that make tropical forests critical for cooling the planet. This omission leads to overly conservative credit valuations for tropical nations and indigenous communities, while potentially overvaluing credits from higher latitudes. The authors suggest integrating these biophysical benefits as premium attributes or CO2 equivalents to ensure a just transition and better incentivize large-scale forest conservation.

• Tropical forests influence climate stability through four primary non-carbon biophysical processes: albedo (solar energy reflection), evapotranspiration (moisture release that cools the surface), surface roughness (wind turbulence that lifts heat and moisture), and the release of aerosols and chemical compounds that affect cloud formation and ozone concentrations.
• Deforestation of tropical forests has a disproportionate impact on global warming; it is estimated to contribute 50% more to global warming than carbon accounting alone suggests.
• The loss of tropical forests creates significant regional and local climate disruptions, including reduced rainfall across national borders—such as deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon affecting precipitation in Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina—and local temperature spikes that can reach 7.6°C during the hottest part of the day.
• Current carbon market standards use thresholds and deductions for risks like additionality, uncertainty, non-permanence, and leakage, which the authors argue are overly punitive for tropical forests and ignore the counterbalancing biophysical benefits.
• Ignoring biophysical cooling effects leads to a systematic undervaluation of tropical forest mitigation potential. If a 50% global cooling bonus were applied to the estimated 2.8 gigatonnes of CO2 mitigation potential from reducing tropical deforestation (2030-2050), it would provide an additional 1.4 to 1.8 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent mitigation annually, comparable to Japan's total 2019 anthropogenic emissions.
• The failure to account for biophysical effects exacerbates global inequality, as it results in 'excessively conservative' credits for tropical countries and 'excessively generous' credits for wealthier countries at higher latitudes where albedo-driven warming is significant.
• The document identifies 'positive biophysical leakages,' where protecting tropical forests creates cooler and more humid environments that increase the resilience of surrounding unprotected areas, reducing the risk of CO2 emissions from wildfires and droughts.

APA

Nugent, N., & Seymour, F. (n.d.). Cómo los mercados de carbono subestiman sistemáticamente los beneficios climáticos de los bosques tropicales. World Resources Institute. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-spanish.pdf

Chicago

Nugent, Nick, and Frances Seymour. Cómo los mercados de carbono subestiman sistemáticamente los beneficios climáticos de los bosques tropicales. World Resources Institute, n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-spanish.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Nugent |first1=Nick |last2=Seymour |first2=Frances |title=Cómo los mercados de carbono subestiman sistemáticamente los beneficios climáticos de los bosques tropicales |publisher=World Resources Institute |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-spanish.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{nugentndcmo, author = {Nugent, Nick and Seymour, Frances}, title = {{Cómo los mercados de carbono subestiman sistemáticamente los beneficios climáticos de los bosques tropicales}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-02/carbon-markets-systematically-undervalue-tropical-forests-climate-benefits-spanish.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }