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Updated: Sep 13, 2025
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Author Spotlight: On-Site Biochar Production for Woody Debris Incineration in Forestry
Published on: January 5, 2024
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Towards more effective nature-based climate solutions in global forests.
William R L Anderegg1,2, Libby Blanchard3,4, Christa Anderson5
1Wilkes Center for Climate Science and Policy, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA. anderegg@utah.edu.
Nature
|July 30, 2025
Summary
Nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) in forests show promise for climate mitigation but face significant challenges. Improving NbCS requires better science and policy to ensure effective carbon storage and emission reductions for net zero goals.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Science
- Climate Science
- Forestry
Background:
- Terrestrial ecosystems, particularly forests, offer potential for climate mitigation via nature-based climate solutions (NbCS).
- Widespread issues in current forest NbCS projects and protocols undermine their effectiveness in reducing emissions and storing carbon.
- These challenges impede progress towards global net-zero targets.
Purpose of the Study:
- To synthesize challenges hindering the crediting of forest NbCS.
- To provide guidance and actionable steps for improving the rigor of forest NbCS.
- To propose an alternative funding mechanism, the 'contribution approach', for rigorous NbCS.
Main Methods:
- Literature synthesis of challenges in forest NbCS projects and protocols.
- Analysis of science and policy considerations for rigorous forest NbCS.
- Development of a 'contribution approach' as an alternative to offsetting.
Main Results:
- Identified widespread problems in forest NbCS projects that undermine climate mitigation claims.
- Highlighted key science and policy gaps in current NbCS implementation.
- Proposed a 'contribution approach' that avoids compensation or offsetting.
Conclusions:
- Urgent improvements in science and policy are needed to enhance the climate mitigation outcomes of forest NbCS.
- Implementing rigorous forest NbCS requires addressing current protocol and project deficiencies.
- The 'contribution approach' offers a viable alternative for funding robust NbCS without relying on offsets.
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