Graduation Year
2022
Date of Submission
4-2022
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Environmental Analysis
Second Department
Government
Reader 1
Branwen Williams
Reader 2
John Pitney
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
Within California’s cap-and-trade program, forest offsets allow landowners to earn carbon credits for protecting forests that sequester carbon and sell these credits to polluters that can then emit one additional ton of carbon. The state’s top regulator, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), is tasked with overseeing cap-and-trade and the forest offset system. CARB is currently updating the state’s Climate Change Scoping Plan to set California on track to achieve its 2030 climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels. CARB is approving forest offsets that overestimate emissions reductions, while allowing companies to continue polluting in disadvantaged communities across the state. The forest offset guidelines contain loopholes that allow project developers to maximize carbon credits by taking advantage of statistical differences between regions, submitting hypothetical heavy logging proposals for forests that were already protected, and contributing low amounts to destruction insurance. Even a perfect forest offset system, devoid of these existing flaws, delivers net neutral benefits to the climate because emissions produced are matched 1:1 with emissions reductions through increased carbon sequestration in forests.
Recommended Citation
Warmoth, Eric, "Forest Offsets in the California Carbon Market: Challenges of a Market Based Climate Solution" (2022). CMC Senior Theses. 3012.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3012
