Key Points

New research published in the journal Global Change Biology raises alarming questions about the efficacy of forest carbon programs registered in California’s cap-and-trade program. Utilizing satellite imagery, particularly of forests in Northwest California, researchers have compared the carbon sequestered by forests versus what is claimed and have emerged with a concerning conclusion: forests registered in the offset program are overcounting the carbon that they are paid to protect.

Key Excerpts

‘large emitters are allowed to purchase, verified carbon offsets’

‘ensuring that … the money is actually going to sequestering more carbon than what than would have occurred in some business as usual scenario, that’s really, really key to … actually achieving the carbon reductions that we need to occur.’

‘we can’t ensure that as a result of enrolling these projects were gaining more carbon stored than if they would have just been managed like any other land in their ownership’

‘We found that these tend to be preferentially on lands that have been harvested more intensely in the past 20 or so years of our record and especially in the past 10 or seven years leading up to the offsets program. So we … flagged that as being … suspicious … They’re going to be recovering from that harvest, increasing their carbon stocks. So it’s kind of interesting that they’re still able to have carbon that’s above above baseline to receive credit. And and also to be increasing carbon over time.’

This article was originally published on The Eco News Report