Evaluation of Potential and Value on Grassland Carbon Sink - A Case Study in Xilinhot of Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract

Durban climate conference decided to continue the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol, and announced to start Green Climate Fund, which provided great opportunities for the rapid development of the carbon trading market. The problem of grassland carbon sink has already received more and more attention from the countries all over the world, and the grassland carbon sink potential and value also got more attention from people. Xilinhot has abundant grassland resources and it is one of the main grasslands in Inner Mongolia. The huge carbon sink has important ecological function and also contains huge economic benefits. Based on the principle of additionality, this paper proposed the method of calculating the carbon sink potential of grasslands, and calculated and analyzed the carbon sink potential of degraded grasslands in Xilinhot. The results indicated that the existing huge carbon sink potential of Xilinhot grasslands was 0.733-0.869Tg C/a. According to the carbon sequestration cost price of afforestation cost method (260.9 RMB yuan / ton C), we estimated the value of grassland carbon sink was 191.2 - 226.7 million RMB yuan / year in Xilinhot.