May 22, 2025
Ground-Truth: Can Forest Carbon Protocols Ensure High-Quality Credits?
Share Event
Event Details:
May 22, 2025
12:00pm – 1:00pm ET
Virtual
Event Contact:
Mary Louks, Director, Events and Engagement, Clean Air Task Force, [email protected]
About the event
Join an expert briefing webinar with Clean Air Task Force staff and leading forest scientists on a new, first-of-its-kind study and scorecard that evaluates 20 forest carbon credit protocols used in North America.
Forests play an important role in mitigating climate change and carbon credits are one approach to financing climate-beneficial forest management. This study is the first to score the protocols used to issue forest carbon credits. We reveal critical weaknesses in the forest protocols governing these projects and make recommendations for strengthening them.
Without stronger standards, both voluntary and compliance carbon markets risk issuing low-quality credits that fail to deliver intended climate benefits, potentially undermining trust in these markets. While stronger federal oversight of the voluntary carbon market would be helpful, it isn’t needed to improve protocols. If market actors take these recommendations seriously, they can restore confidence in forest carbon markets and secure the potential of forests to help mitigate climate change.
Speakers
Rebecca Sanders-DeMott
Director, Ecosystem Carbon Science, Clean Air Task Force
Lucy Hutyra
Distinguished Professor, Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University
Matthew Hurteau
Professor, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico
Sara Kuebbing
Research Scientist, Yale School of the Environment and Director of Research, Yale Applied Science Synthesis Program
