Nearly six years ago, Jeremy Freeman began as CarbonPlan’s Executive Director, and we’re so grateful for his leadership. Today is another moment of growth for us, as Jeremy steps down from that role, while remaining President and Chair of the Board. In this blog post he shares about our next steps.

Verra recently announced that more than half of the credits from the Kariba REDD+ project don’t represent real climate benefits. Our new commentary explains why carbon market participants should treat Verra’s proposed solution to excess crediting with skepticism.

Wildfire Update: The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires will likely trigger losses from California’s buffer pool, now that they’ve burned over 12,000 acres of a forest enrolled in its offset program. 🍁

The Rattlesnake and Lynx Mountain Fires in eastern Washington have burned more than 3,000 acres of the Colville forest offset project. 🍁🧪(1/3) carbonplan.org/research/for...

Five years ago, the Lionshead Fire burned through one of California’s forest offset projects in central Oregon. Despite strict reporting requirements, we’re still waiting for an update about the project and the millions of carbon credits that were likely lost to the fire.

Agricultural liming helped create the infrastructure that enhanced weathering needs to scale up, but it also makes some enhanced weathering projects harder to support in the carbon market. We show why this tension exists and discuss some paths forward in our latest article.

California’s offset program is not only deeply flawed, it also costs the state hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue. We dive into the details in a new commentary. carbonplan.org/research/off... (1/7)

We wanted @cdrxiv.org to have a distinctive design built on a reliable, open source publishing software. Getting both required collaboration with @janewayolh.bsky.social to overcome technical challenges. Here's how we did it: carbonplan.org/blog/cdrxiv-...

Early snowmelt and forecasts of a hot and dry summer ahead mean the 2025 wildfire season could be devastating. And when trees burn, sometimes carbon offsets go with them. We’ll be documenting how wildfire affects offsets. carbonplan.org/blog/offset-...

We recently hosted a workshop with Cascade and Stripe on how ERW projects should account for pre-existing aglime use when estimating new carbon removal. It’s a tricky but important question — and everyone agrees that it can’t be ignored. carbonplan.org/blog/aglime-...

When you extract CO2 from the ocean, how much carbon do you end up removing from the atmosphere? We worked with @cworthy.bsky.social to build a new map tool that helps answer that question — showing how direct ocean removal (DOR) performs across different ocean regions and seasons.

Climate change is happening quickly. Solutions research needs to move at a speed that meets the challenge. We're launching @cdrxiv.org, a new preprint server for CDR research, because transparency and collaboration help move the field forward. Let’s make better CDR, together: cdrxiv.org

Want to know how fossil fuel companies use carbon offsets to claim they’re fighting climate change? We've updated OffsetsDB — our offsets database — to allow you to search by carbon credit user. Search "Shell" and see what offsets they're using and when. (1/4) carbonplan.org/research/off...

A new wastewater alkalinity enhancement protocol can be used to issue CDR credits to activities that don’t increase the amount of carbon removed from the atmosphere. We wrote about how this breaks with other CDR protocols, and what it could mean moving forward. carbonplan.org/blog/counter...

Forest offset projects can now use dynamic baselines to measure, rather than model, impacts on carbon. This is a step forward, but it’s still impossible for 3rd party observers to confirm climate benefits because project location data isn’t public. carbonplan.org/blog/vm0045-...

We surveyed CDR stakeholders about the role of independent protocol review. While we found broad agreement about value of such reviews, there seem to be some important differences in what stakeholders want from outcomes and how they think the process should function. carbonplan.org/research/pro...

There’s an ongoing debate over what should “count” as CO₂ removal. In a new commentary with @hausfath.bsky.social, we break down key points of contention, proposed definitions, and why no definition offers a perfect path forward. (1/5) carbonplan.org/research/def...

We maintain a tool that shows how companies use offsets to comply with California’s cap-and-trade program. The tool is now updated with the latest available data, providing a complete picture of offset use in the first decade of the program — from 2013 through 2023. 🧪 carbonplan.org/blog/complia...

Hey people working on marine CO₂ removal (mCDR), post your preprints to CDRXIV (pronounced C-D Archive). 🌊

Our latest research estimates that almost 40 percent of California’s forest offset buffer pool has been lost to wildfire. That’s roughly twice as many credits than have been set aside to address wildfire risks for the next 100 years. (1/4) 🧪https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17599

An offset project that was terminated after a wildfire is trying to re-enroll in California's forest offset program. This presents some serious problems to the program's long-term sustainability. 🧪 carbonplan.org/blog/klamath...

Projects that aim to remove carbon by tweaking existing industrial processes can end up avoiding some emissions as well. That’s a good thing for the climate — but it can pose challenges when trying to support these projects through the sale of carbon removal credits. carbonplan.org/research/cdr... 🧪

In January, AB1305 will start requiring California companies to report which offsets they use. A few have already started making these disclosures, revealing big challenges — data is hard to find, often incomplete, and tough to analyze. Read our recommendations: 🧪 carbonplan.org/research/ab1...

Over the summer, we did a webinar with Journalist's Resource at Harvard to talk about how carbon markets work and how you can use our free, open-source tools to more easily investigate the projects and companies involved. journalistsresource.org/home/carbon-...

The IPCC is working on methodologies for countries to estimate and report on CDR. Now is the time to publicly share your CDR research if you want it to inform this process. 🧪 carbonplan.org/blog/ipcc-cd...

Not all ocean alkalinity enhancement (OAE) deployments will work the same because not all parts of the ocean work the same. We built a new interactive mapping tool using data from @cworthy.bsky.social to show how OAE leads to different amounts of carbon removal based on where and when it’s deployed.

We’re looking for an Open Source Lead who can help us design and build open software and data infrastructure to tackle hard climate problems. If you feel passionate about this work and ready to manage a small, flexible team, we hope you’ll apply! apply.workable.com/carbonplan/j...

Models broadly agree that climate change is affecting risks. But when private risk analysis companies assess danger for individual addresses, the results can vary substantially. Consumers need to know that any one company’s assessment doesn’t represent a singular truth. (1/8)

Our research found that some low-quality projects received ICVCM offset credit quality labels. The organization has said it is looking into this problem. For now, we suggest market participants adjust their expectations about what the process can deliver. carbonplan.org/research/icv...

Our open-source development team is making it easier to use Zarr to create web visualizations of high-resolution earth science data. Read more about our new toolkit for data-driven maps at the Pangeo Medium blog. medium.com/pangeo/zarr-...

We’ve been covering two problems with the offsets market: carbon losses from wildfire and disclosure of project boundaries. Now, one fire in Northern California is bringing them together. carbonplan.org/blog/whiskey...

The ICVCM released its first batch of credit quality labels. But our research found that some low-quality projects have slipped through, raising doubts about a system that was supposed to make offsets more trustworthy. carbonplan.org/research/icv...

Sign up for our July 9 webinar on carbon offsets with Journalist's Resource. This will be useful stuff both for climate reporters and folks covering other overlapping beats, like local politics, business, or land management. harvard.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Wildfires have burned a major offset project in southern New Mexico. Evidence suggests that many offset programs haven’t properly accounted for the increased risks wildfires pose in a warmer world. This latest burn is just one part of that bigger picture. carbonplan.org/blog/mescale...

Rimba Raya is an offset project so big that its possible failure could threaten global carbon markets. Here's how a political threat to one project in Indonesia is illustrating the precarity of the system as a whole. carbonplan.org/blog/rimba-r...

California's cap and trade program depends on forest offsets, but the forests are burning. The program’s carbon insurance program suffered losses for the second quarter in a row. And there’s more big losses that haven’t been officially counted yet. carbonplan.org/blog/carb-bu...

Great to see the @carbonplan.org CDR Verification Framework updated to include five different biomass-based pathways: biomaterial injection, biomass burial, biomass sinking, biochar applied to soils, and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). carbonplan.org/blog/vcl-upd...

We've updated our CDR Verification Framework to include five biomass-based CDR pathways. We hope this tool is a useful starting point for understanding biomass-based carbon removal and thinking about the associated uncertainties.  carbonplan.org/blog/vcl-upd...

Enhanced rock weathering is a carbon removal technique gaining lots of attention, but we’re still figuring out best ways to do it. In collab with @climatejesper.bsky.social, we synthesized scientific results to explain what we know, and grapple with what we don’t. carbonplan.org/research/enh...

"transparency, honesty, humility, skepticism and collaboration" should be principles for any kind of climate research. For geoengineering research, they are doubly important. @carbonplan.org's Jeremy Freeman in the @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2024/03/17/o...

Spraying particles into the atmosphere to block the sun was once taboo among scientists. But that’s changing fast. Our Jeremy Freeman wrote about why transparency, accountability, and public oversight are crucial in a world where geoengineering is more than sci-fi. www.nytimes.com/2024/03/17/o...

Why is a car company selling carbon credits? Last year, a prototype of OffsetsDB helped @technologyreview.com reveal Rivian’s plan to own (and sell) offsets produced when its customers charge their cars. Now you can use it too. carbonplan.org/research/off...

OffsetsDB makes it easier to learn about carbon offsets, where they come from, and who profits. Get the most out of this powerful new tool by reading our Explainer, which breaks down how we built OffsetsDB and what you can do with it. carbonplan.org/research/off...

Carbon credits are everywhere, but the data about where they come is hard to track down and difficult to work with. OffsetsDB is a new database that collects, standardizes, and provides daily updates of offset project data from five of the largest registries. carbonplan.org/research/off...

Carbon credits are everywhere, but the data about where they come is hard to track down and difficult to work with. OffsetsDB is a new database that collects, standardizes, and provides daily updates of offset project data from five of the largest registries. carbonplan.org/research/off...

The forests backing carbon credits are literally burning. And this kind of catastrophic loss could spell doom for offset programs, like the one in California. carbonplan.org/research/buf...

See how different organizations are using specific offsets to comply with California’s cap-and-trade program using our Compliance User’s Tool – now updated through the end of 2022! carbonplan.org/blog/complia...

Set a goal for myself to donate 1% of my monthly income to housing/climate causes. Currently supporting: - @streetsforall.bsky.social making LA streets less car centric - @cleanaircatf - supporting neglected low carbon tech - @carbonplan.bsky.social - holding climate projects accountable

Big data sets can make climate science slow. We’ve demonstrated a way to speed it up, using an open source library called Kerchunk. carbonplan.org/blog/kerchun...

We do a LOT of mapping here at CarbonPlan. Now, we've come up with a way to make our open source map tools more flexible for others to use. carbonplan.org/blog/zarr-vi...