Train travel passengers' willingness to pay to offset their CO2 emissions in Korea

Due to the upsurge in concerns regarding climate change, the carbon market has been growing more rapidly than ever. Recently, a more innovative and experimental voluntary carbon market has been playing a supplementary role to the compliance market, which is lacking in flexibility and diversity, and has been accounting for an increasingly larger portion of the carbon market. Among the efforts to accumulate data and develop appropriate policies for the voluntary carbon market, it is necessary to analyze the benefits of carbon offsets for GHG emissions from railways. This study attempts to apply contingent valuation (CV) to measure the public's willingness to pay (WTP) for voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) from railway travel in Korea. Furthermore, in order to enhance the statistical efficiency of the WTP estimation and reduce the response effect in the context of WTP elicitation, this study employs a one-and-one-half bound dichotomous choice format. The estimate of the mean WTP for a VCO program for a specific travel distance is estimated to be KRW 1,345 (USD 1.24) per person. This quantitative information can be utilized to develop policies related to mitigating climate change. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.