Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Developing an urban forest carbon market

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Countries, states, localities, businesses, and individuals are taking action to mitigate greenhouse gas levels and production as a response to concerns over climate change. Europe currently has mandatory greenhouse gas emission legislation and a large developed emission trading market, as opposed to the U.S. where voluntary markets to reduce green house gas emissions are still developing. An integral part of these markets is permanently reducing or sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2) to create a carbon credit and then selling this carbon credit. Currently, there is little differentiation between methods and locations of projects that create carbon credits. This project looks to investigate the potential for an U.S. urban forest carbon market. A supply of
urban forest carbon in the U.S. exists as evidenced by urban forests sequestering 88.5 million tons of CO2 in 2005, representing approximately 1.5% of the total U.S. CO2 emissions. Not only is the supply significant, but it is also growing, as the amount sequestered in 2005 is approximately 53% greater than the amount sequestered in 1990. The interest, motivation, and
willingness of market participants are determined by use of surveys. Potential urban forest carbon sellers, such as cities and urban counties, were surveyed to obtain insight to the feasibility of an urban forest carbon market.

Keywords

Forest carbon, urban carbon, carbon markets, urban forests

Citation

Armstrong, M.; Siry, J.; Bowker, M. 2009. Developing an urban forest carbon market. In: Siry, J.; Izlar, B.; Bettinger, P.; Harris, T.; Baldwin, S.; Merry, K.; Tye, T., eds. Proceedings of the 2008 Southern Forest Economics Workers Annual Meeting; Center for Forest Business, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/52287