. . . the Nebraska Carbon Sequestration Advisory Committee  

 Thank you for visiting the University of Nebraska- Lincoln, USA.

On-Going  Carbon Market Mechanisms Research 

at this University

This page represents findings within the market mechanisms and financial incentives part of the Carbon Sequestration Program(CSP)   at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that was initiated fall, 2000.  This part of the CSP is focused on 1) understanding what motivates adoption of carbon sequestration technologies by farmers and ranchers, 2) how such adoption is influenced by market mechanisms and incentives, e.g., government programs, and 3) the design of appropriate mechanisms and incentives while simultaneously considering a)  the private interests of both the buyers and sellers of carbon storage, and b)  the joint and shared (public) interests of both buyers and sellers, as well as others in the community of interest.

This research program on mechanisms (and institutions)  is substantively different from most other ongoing national and international programs in that it rests upon a foundation of  Metaeconomics Theory .  Metaeconomics includes the others-interest as synergistically bound to the self-interest in truly effective, evolving carbon markets.  It sees a moral dimension to all markets, especially the new and evolving environmental markets, with this dimension not left to the workings of the invisible hand.  Carbon markets are embedded in the social structure, and needing explicit attention. This is to say, both buyers and sellers of carbon storage likely seek a joint and interdependent public and private interest, so market mechanisms and incentives need to be designed in such a manner as to facilitate expressing both interests.  The underlying value system giving the structure to the carbon market is opened to inquiry.  This perspective contrasts with microeconomics theory as the foundation of  research programs  wherein the design needs to facilitate only the pursuit of the private or self-interest. The latter is amoral; i.e., it does not do the moral inquiry, the values inquiry, into the underlying institutional structure reflecting what is jointly valued.

In simpler terms,  metaeconomics posits that farmers/ranchers as sellers of carbon storage and  perhaps electric utility managers as buyers, not only pursue the self interest but also wish to do-the-right-thing.  Each prefers that the market not only provides for efficiency and profit but also is just, and consistent with shared values as among farmers, ranchers and utility managers/owners.  Perhaps most everyone is motivated by both empathic and egoistic drives, jointly pursued.  Most pursue, simultaneously, both an others- and a self-interest.  Anyone that has tried to balance the tensions of family life (or within a business) can perhaps identify with this contention!   (see Lynne HomePage for further links and dialogue about metaeconomics and its applications).

Last update:  October, 2001