Alice FAVERO
RTI International, USA
Dr. Alice Favero is a senior research economist at the Center of Water, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Solutions at RTI International. In this capacity, she has served as the director and task lead of multiple projects with federal and non-governmental agencies. Dr. Favero has 15+ years of experience in performing economic analysis for a variety of projects within the land and energy sectors, focusing on bioenergy supply and nature-based climate solutions, and excels in coordinating diverse partners across multiple workstreams. Dr. Favero applies dynamic, spatially explicit modeling frameworks to assess trade-offs in coupled human-environmental systems, contributing to internationally recognized research and serving as an invited speaker at workshops on bioenergy and forest mitigation. She has participated in the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and is involved with the Forestry & Agriculture Modeling Forum. Before joining RTI, Dr. Favero spent nearly a decade in academia, where she taught Environmental Economics and served as Director of Graduate Studies at Georgia Tech.
Title of the presentation: Modeling the Global Potential and Costs of Forest Carbon Sequestration Using Dynamic Economic Analysis
Abstract: Forests currently store more carbon in their vegetation and soils than the total amount present in Earth’s atmosphere, making them a critical component of global climate mitigation strategies. This study evaluates the future potential and costs of forest-based carbon sequestration across 215 countries using a dynamic economic model, FAO data, and new estimates of feasible restoration area and pace. Results indicate that at a carbon price of $100 per tonne of CO₂ by 2050, global forest mitigation could sequester up to 8 GtCO₂. Of this total, 38% would result from afforestation and reforestation, 26% from avoided deforestation, and 37% from improved forest management. Most mitigation occurs in tropical regions, although their relative contribution declines as incentives increase. A constrained scenario—limiting afforestation and reforestation to historical rates, reduces potential mitigation by up to 42% under high carbon prices, with the strongest impacts in temperate forests. These findings provide new insights into the scale, cost, and regional distribution of forest-based mitigation, supporting policymakers in designing effective and evidence-based climate strategies.
Email: afavero@rti.org