Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol (August 2008)


 


Urban Forest Project Verification Protocol (August 2008)


 


Urban Forest Protocol Summary of Comments (August 2008) 


 


Urban Forest Appendices (August 2008)


 


 


The California Climate Action Registry is pleased to announce the completion of the Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol. The Urban Forest Protocol is a sector-specific greenhouse gas (GHG) project protocol that provides guidance to account for real, additional, and credible GHG reductions from urban tree planting projects for registration in the Climate Action Reserve. The draft protocol provides eligibility rules, methods to calculate reductions, performance-monitoring instructions, and procedures for reporting project information.


 



GHG reductions from urban forests are based on the amount of carbon sequestered and stored in urban trees, taking into account GHG emissions associated with the planting, care and maintenance of those trees. Growing trees removes CO2 from the atmosphere by transforming CO2 into carbon and using it to build living matter—leaves, stems, trunk, roots. This process is known as carbon sequestration. Urban Forest Projects that yield surplus GHG reductions, which are additional to what might otherwise have occurred, are eligible for registration in the Climate Action Reserve.


 


The protocol is accompanied by further guidance on how to quantify other indirect GHG benefits of urban forests (e.g. reduced heating and air conditioning use and providing biomass energy feedstocks). However, these benefits are not considered in GHG reduction estimates.


 


The California Registry Urban Forest Protocol is the result of a stakeholder-driven process that began in September 2006. The US Forest Service Center for Urban Forest Research (CUFR), widely known for its extensive technical expertise in quantifying environmental benefits of urban forests, led a two-year process involving a wide range of urban forest experts and various other stakeholders to produce a draft Urban Forest Protocol for the California Registry. As part of the process CUFR developed a user-friendly standardized calculation tool, the CUFR Tree Carbon Calculator (CTCC) that can be used to calculate tree carbon sequestration as part of the protocol.


 


 


PUBLIC WORKSHOP


 


July 29, 2008
Agenda
Slides – Presentation 1
Slides – Presentation 2


 


 


 


Please send any inquiries about the Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol to policy@caclimateregistry.org.