Stay informed

Forest carbon credits may prove to be a useful tool to reduce net carbon emissions from land use and supplement overall emissions reductions. New research from EDF refines previous research by accounting for more variability in ecological factors that affect carbon sequestration.

New EDF research offers insights and opportunities for strengthening the integrity of California's temperate forest carbon credits by accounting for differences in forests' geography and tree species composition.

The entire northeast corner of Ecuador was once inhabited by the A’i Cofán people, but the population has dwindled as the land has been fragmented by development. Protecting their land is a constant, sometimes dangerous, struggle. But there may be a glimmer of hope in the form of the largest-ever public-private partnership that invests in protecting the forest.

Eight major environmental nonprofits and Indigenous Peoples organizations released the second version of the Tropical Forest Credit Integrity (TFCI) Guide: comprehensive, step-by-step counsel for companies to follow when investing in tropical forest carbon credits to fight climate change.

EDF research published in Ecological Applications offers new insights and opportunities for strengthening the integrity of temperate forest carbon credits by accounting for differences in forests' geography and tree species composition.

High-quality tropical forest carbon credits are essential to combatting climate change, advancing community-led development and safeguarding biodiversity. This post was written by Mark Moroge, Vice President, Natural Climate Solutions and Breanna Lujan, Senior Manager, Natural Climate Solutions. This is an exerpt of a post published in EDF+Business. Read the full post here. If you’re a …

All future climate scenarios that hold planetary warming close to 1.5 °C by 2050 will require massive cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, supplemented by the use of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods to clean up leftover heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide can be permanently stored under the seabed in geologic reservoirs.

Marine plants and algae, like phytoplankton, take up CO2 during photosynthesis, and this can increase the ocean’s uptake of atmospheric CO2.

This booklet from EDF and partners provides a primer on various ocean CDR strategies, summarizing the theory behind each technique, the current state of knowledge of their carbon storage potential and associated costs, technical readiness, and potential environmental and social impacts.

Ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE), also termed enhanced weathering (EW), aims to alter seawater chemistry, usually by spreading finely ground alkaline minerals like silicates and carbonates in seawater or on coastal lands.

Macroalgae, or seaweeds, are large, plantlike organisms that grow naturally in the ocean and, like land plants, take up and store carbon via photosynthesis.

Electricity can be used to remove carbon dioxide from seawater by driving well-understood chemical reactions that either liberate carbon dioxide gas from the seawater for capture and sequestration, or alter seawater’s chemical balances to enable it to store more CO2 than it naturally would.

“Blue carbon” methods are a wide-ranging category of nature-based climate solutions that aim to preserve or enhance the ocean’s natural CO2 capture and storage capacity by protecting, restoring, or better managing specific ocean ecosystems.

The Biden-Harris administration announced the release of a Roadmap to Accelerate Nature-Based Solutions to address climate change, inequity, and nature loss. It could be the key to future resilience planning. The post Biden’s roadmap to nature-based solutions could be the key to future resilience planning. first appeared on Growing Returns.

By Vrinda Suresh, Julia Mason and Doug Rader  During the last two weeks of August 2022, delegates from across the globe gathered in New York City for the Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Conference, or IGC5, to develop a new treaty to protect biodiversity in offshore waters, called the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, or …

Learn how much carbon cropland soils can store by exploring two white papers from EDF.

At COP15, how countries deal with conservation, natural climate solutions and sustainable agriculture and fisheries will be critical in producing durable solutions. Here are the areas EDF is watching.

The big climate meeting known as COP27 is over, and the question is: What happened, and will it help us deal with the climate crisis? Get our expert take.

EDF’s Executive Vice President for Impact, Angela Churie Kallhauge, reflects on the outcomes of the annual United Nations climate conference.

EDF scientist says to leave your leaves on the ground to help your grass and the climate.

With COP27 now in full gear, we have plenty to be excited about when it comes to forest conservation. Here’s a quick overview from EDF of the first three days’ action on forests.

This post was authored by Santiago Garcia, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Partnerships Manager for Natural Climate Solutions at Environmental Defense Fund. This week, representatives of 190 nations, including 90 heads of state, began gathering at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to discuss and negotiate solutions for our warming planet. As important as these movers …

Three new reports examine the potential of blue carbon pathways to act as natural climate solutions. By Kristin Kleisner, Monica Moritsch and Jamie Collins To address the climate crisis we need to explore every avenue possible, investigate innovative solutions, and even look to the oceans for answers. The oceans already serve the planet as a …

Three new reports based on work supported by the Bezos Earth Fund were released today by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), highlighting the potential of different blue carbon interventions to help in the fight against climate change and act as natural climate solutions (NCS), some of which may be marketable with further research and economic and policy action.