Afforestation and Forest Restoration as Efficient Approaches to Climate Change Mitigation
Stricter requirements by international economic associations regarding greenhouse gases emission into the atmosphere, as well as growing demand for information on intensity of carbon emissions in making investment decisions augment the relevance of rational choice of relevant government policies. The paper reviews several international cases demonstrating high efficiency of afforestation and reforestation as means of mitigating the process of climate change. The volumes of greenhouse gases extracted by planted forests from the atmosphere are on scale of billions of tons while the cost of CO2 capture by natural methods is much lower than expenditure associated with the most efficient of existing technologies of carbon sequestration. The authors claim that implementation of afforestation and reforestation projects with the purpose of greenhouse gas absorption should become a major national climate policy choice in the framework of the Paris Agreement. A priority should be given to comprehensive programs aimed at achieving several sustainable development objectives at once.