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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.

[California Climate Action Registry website]

Urban Forest Project Reporting Protocol

Sub-Topics
Carbon, Planning, State Program
State(s)/Region(s)
California
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