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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · 26d

Wildfire Update: The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires will likely trigger losses from California’s buffer pool, now that they’ve burned over 12,000 acres of a forest enrolled in its offset program. 🍁

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Sep 4

The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires in eastern Washington have burned more than 3,000 acres of the Colville forest offset project. 🍁🧪(1/3)

carbonplan.org/research/for...

Map showing wildfire in the the ACR255 forest offset project.

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Sep 4

When offset projects burn, they affect the long-term sustainability of California’s cap-and-trade program, which partly depends on forest offsets to meet its climate goals. We track the impact of fire on California’s offset program in order to make these risks more transparent to the public. (3/3)

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Sep 4

Much of eastern Washington is under a Red Flag Warning, which means hot and dry conditions that are conducive for rapid fire growth. This same project has burned multiple times over the past five years, including major fires in 2015, 2019, 2020, and 2021. (2/3)

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Sep 4

The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires in eastern Washington have burned more than 3,000 acres of the Colville forest offset project. 🍁🧪(1/3)

carbonplan.org/research/for...

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Sep 3

Five years ago, the Lionshead Fire burned through one of California’s forest offset projects in central Oregon. Despite strict reporting requirements, we’re still waiting for an update about the project and the millions of carbon credits that were likely lost to the fire.

California’s forest offset program has a reporting problem – CarbonPlan

Five years later, we still don’t know the carbon consequences of the 2020 Lionshead Fire.

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 27

Agricultural liming helped create the infrastructure that enhanced weathering needs to scale up, but it also makes some enhanced weathering projects harder to support in the carbon market. We show why this tension exists and discuss some paths forward in our latest article.

Scaling enhanced weathering in limed fields – CarbonPlan

Both agricultural liming and enhanced weathering spread crushed rocks on fields and have the potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere. We explore how modifying liming for carbon removal works — ...

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

California has plenty of policy priorities that desperately need funding — think firefighting or energy affordability. Lawmakers can unlock a big pool of money for things that actually benefit Californians and the climate. It’s time to retire offsets for good. (7/7)

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

We argue California is getting a raw deal — millions in lost revenue and not much in return. And that’s to say nothing about how offsets affect fenceline communities that do not benefit from emission reductions that take place somewhere else. (6/7)

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

Second, the majority of offsets in California’s program are from forests, and as we and others have shown, many of these offsets do not reflect real climate benefits. doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... (5/7)

Systematic over‐crediting in California's forest carbon offsets program

Forest carbon offsets are increasingly prominent in corporate and government “net zero” emission strategies, but face growing criticism about their efficacy. California's forest offsets program is fr...

doi.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

We get those numbers from careful modeling work done by @rff.org . Their model accounts for the dynamics of supply and demand, with and without offsets. www.rff.org/publications... (4/7)

Offset Reform Could Drive Investments in Nature-Based Climate Solutions

This issue brief explores a potential reform to California's carbon market to generate more investment for nature-based climate solutions.

www.rff.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

First, offsets lower the demand for pollution allowances auctioned by the state. Lower demand means lower prices, which costs California hundreds of millions of dollars in auction revenue. (3/7)

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

Offsets are in the news because California’s cap and trade program is up for renewal. Our commentary draws together two lines of evidence to argue that California should do away with offsets altogether. (2/7)

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

California’s offset program is not only deeply flawed, it also costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. We dive into the details in a new commentary. carbonplan.org/research/off... (1/7)

Offsets are no free lunch – CarbonPlan

Offsets provide few climate benefits and cost California hundreds of millions of dollars each year. When lawmakers reauthorize the state’s cap and trade program this fall, they should eliminate the us...

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

Second, the majority of offsets in California’s program are from forests, and as we and others have shown, many of these offsets do not reflect real climate benefits. doi.org/10.1111/gcb.... (5/7)

Systematic over‐crediting in California's forest carbon offsets program

Forest carbon offsets are increasingly prominent in corporate and government “net zero” emission strategies, but face growing criticism about their efficacy. California's forest offsets program is fr...

doi.org

1

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

We get those numbers from careful modeling work done by @rff.org. Their model accounts for the dynamics of supply and demand, with and without offsets. www.rff.org/publications... (4/7)

Harnessing Carbon Value to Lower Costs in California

This issue brief examines how a small reform to the California carbon market could improve affordability by delivering billions of dollars to harden infrastructure, advance climate goals, and improve ...

www.rff.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

First, offsets lower the demand for pollution allowances auctioned by the state. Lower demand means lower prices, which costs California hundreds of millions of dollars in auction revenue. (3/7)

1

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 21

Offsets are in the news because California’s cap and trade program is up for renewal. Our commentary draws together two lines of evidence to argue that California should do away with offsets altogether. (2/7)

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Aug 13

We wanted @cdrxiv.org to have a distinctive design built on a reliable, open source publishing software. Getting both required collaboration with @janewayolh.bsky.social to overcome technical challenges. Here's how we did it: carbonplan.org/blog/cdrxiv-...

Building CDRXIV in the open – CarbonPlan

How we built our platform for research in carbon dioxide removal using open source tools.

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 25

Another bad fire year could spell trouble for California’s offset program. It comes with a sort of insurance system to replace trees lost to fire. But our research shows this “buffer pool” is inadequate. Wildfire has already burned through 40% of reserves. 🧪
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Increasingly Active Wildfire Seasons Threaten the Sustainability of Forest‐Backed Carbon Offset Programs

In 2024, wildfires burned a record number of forests participating in California's forest offset program, exposing the danger of relying on forests to slow climate change. While California maintains ...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 25

Our tracker tool shows where wildfires are currently burning in the United States, and how those fires affect offsets registered with California’s forest offset program. 🧪https://carbonplan.org/research/forest-offsets-fires

Fires and forest offsets – CarbonPlan

Monitor of forest fires affecting improved forest management carbon offset projects.

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 25

Early snowmelt and forecasts of a hot and dry summer ahead mean the 2025 wildfire season could be devastating. And when trees burn, sometimes carbon offsets go with them. We’ll be documenting how wildfire affects offsets. carbonplan.org/blog/offset-...

This fire season promises to be rough. We’re tracking its impact on offsets. – CarbonPlan

We’re relaunching our forest offsets tracking tool for the 2025 North American fire season.

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 6

We recently hosted a workshop with Cascade and Stripe on how ERW projects should account for pre-existing aglime use when estimating new carbon removal. It’s a tricky but important question — and everyone agrees that it can’t be ignored. carbonplan.org/blog/aglime-...

Workshop notes: accounting for aglime in enhanced rock weathering – CarbonPlan

We recently held a workshop on accounting for counterfactual liming in enhanced weathering. Attendees agreed the counterfactual must be considered, but for now there is no single best way to do so.

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 4

If you’re working on DOR, OAE, or just curious about marine CDR, we hope these tools and the underlying data help build shared intuition and a better foundation for standards, accounting, and deployment decisions.

carbonplan.org/research/mcd...

Mapping Marine CDR – CarbonPlan

Index of tools visualizing marine CDR efficiency and dynamics.

carbonplan.org

CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 4

Our new map tool lets you explore how ocean dynamics shape the efficiency of direct ocean removal—region by region, season by season. You can read more in our explainer.

carbonplan.org/research/dor...

Mapping the efficiency of direct ocean removal – CarbonPlan

This new dataset and tool make it easier to see how the efficiency of direct ocean removal — a marine carbon dioxide removal approach — varies around the world. Developed in collaboration with [C]Wort...

carbonplan.org

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CarbonPlan @carbonplan.org · Jun 4

But DOR is unique: it also produces a pure stream of CO2 that was extracted from the surface ocean and must be securely stored. That means DOR’s ultimate impact depends both on air-sea gas exchange dynamics (like OAE) and CO2 storage integrity (like DAC or BECCS).

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