New York’s landmark climate legislation – the Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act of 2019 – requires the elimination of 85% of statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. Achieving the ultimate goal of a carbon-neutral economy will require offsets, or ‘negative emissions’, for the remaining 15% of New York’s GHG footprint.
Forests cover nearly 2/3 of New York State by area and will play a leading role in providing these negative emissions – but the magnitude of this carbon sink, its relationships with other forest functions and services, and its resilience to multiple drivers of change, including management, are poorly understood.
To measure the value of forests across New York State as a natural climate solution, we are developing a four-part protocol for forest carbon accounting that includes high-resolution forest mapping, historical change detection, landscape monitoring and hierarchical forecasting. This work is being carried out in close partnership with the Office of Climate Change and the Division of Lands & Forests at the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, and is supported by the NYS Environmental Protection Fund.