Costs and equity of uncertain greenhouse gas reductions – fuel, food and negative emissions in Sweden

Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by reduction of fuel and food consumption and by implementation of negative emissions (such as forest carbon sequestration and carbon capture and storage) has been suggested in both scientific literature and practice, but there exist no calculations of the cost efficient combination of these measures. One challenge for calculations is the uncertainty in reductions of GHG, in particular for negative emissions, depending on e.g. stochastic weather conditions. This paper develops a static model with probabilistic emission constraints to calculate cost efficient emission reductions in the transportation (gasoline and diesel) and food (meat and dairy products) sectors combined with negative emission (carbon sequestration and carbon capture and storage technologies) creation in Sweden under uncertainty. The results show that emission reductions in fuel and food consumption are relatively expensive, and that carbon sequestration are relatively low cost measures. We also show that the regional effects at the county level are regressive, that is, that relatively poor counties will carry large cost burdens in the cost efficient solutions and that this effect is increased when negative emissions are included but decreased when uncertainty is considered. •Cost efficient reduction of greenhouse gases in a safety first setting.•Uncertainty in emission reduction exists and differs among abatement measures.•Uncertainty increases costs of reaching climate targets.•Costs of reductions in fuel and food higher than costs of negative emissions in Sweden.•Uncertainty reduces regressivity in allocation of costs among counties in Sweden.