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

This report by the World Resources Institute argues that current carbon markets systematically undervalue tropical forests by focusing exclusively on greenhouse gas emissions and ignoring critical non-carbon biophysical effects that contribute to global, regional, and local climate stabilization.

• Tropical forests influence the climate through four primary non-carbon biophysical processes: albedo (solar energy reflection), evapotranspiration (cooling via moisture release), surface roughness (wind turbulence that lifts heat and moisture), and the release of aerosols and chemical compounds that affect cloud color and ozone concentrations.
• Deforestation of tropical forests has a disproportionate impact on global warming; it is estimated to contribute 50 percent more to global warming than carbon accounting alone suggests.
• The loss of tropical forests creates significant regional and local climate disruptions. Regionally, it can reduce downstream precipitation, such as deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon affecting rainfall in Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. Locally, it can increase peak daily temperatures by as much as 7.6 °C for nearby communities.
• Current carbon credit systems use conservative thresholds and deductions to manage risks like lack of additionality, uncertainty, non-permanence, and leakage. However, these standards can be punitively high for tropical forests, potentially excluding High Forest Low Deforestation (HFLD) jurisdictions and indigenous territories from funding.
• Ignoring biophysical cooling effects leads to a systematic undervaluation of tropical forest mitigation potential. If the 50 percent additional global cooling bonus were included, tropical forest conservation could provide an additional 1.4 to 1.8 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent mitigation annually, a volume comparable to Japan's total anthropogenic emissions in 2019.
• The report identifies 'positive biophysical leakages,' where protecting tropical forests benefits adjacent unprotected areas by maintaining cooler and more humid environments. This increases landscape resilience, reduces the risk of CO2 emissions from wildfires and droughts, and helps degraded forests regenerate.
• To better value tropical forests, the authors suggest four improvements: balancing risk thresholds to avoid excluding natural climate solutions, integrating biophysical effects as premium attributes, accounting for positive biophysical leakage, and working toward quantifying these benefits as CO2 equivalents.

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} }