Carbon conundrums: Do United States' current carbon market baselines represent an undesirable ecological threshold?

Abstract

Forests are perhaps the most vital terrestrial carbon (C) pool in the United States providing the largest net offset to domestic fossil fuel emissions. In fact, reforestation and improved forest management show the greatest potential for climate change mitigation across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in the United States among a variety of proposed natural climate solutions (NCS; Fargione et al., 2018; Kaarakka et al., 2021), particularly when implementation costs are considered. As such, forest policy and management guidelines are increasingly framed through a lens of expanding and/or maximizing C storage/sequestration as policy makers and private entities alike seek net reductions or even net-zero status.

Citation

D'Amato, Anthony W.; Woodall, Christopher W.; Weiskittel, Aaron R.; Littlefield, Caitlin E.; Murray, Lara T. 2022. Carbon conundrums: Do United States' current carbon market baselines represent an undesirable ecological threshold?. Global Change Biology. 28(13): 3991-3994. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16215.